OREANDA-NEWS.  October 02, 2014. POSCO E&C (CEO Hwang Tae-hyun) won a contract for the construction of a gas-fired power plant in Nigeria worth USD1.14 billion (about \1.2 trillion).

This represents the largest single energy plant construction project that POSCO E&C has been involved in overseas. POSCO E&C signed the deal with Nigeria`s Ebonyi IPP, the client, in the head office in Songdo, Incheon.

This project is to construct a 2500? gas-fired power plant in the Ebonyi State about 300? south of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. POSCO E&C will take care of Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC), and carry out the construction for 28 months.

At the signing ceremony on September 12, more than 30 interested parties attended, including Terry Moreland, CEO of Ebonyi IPP, Benjamin Okah, Minister of Public Utilities of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, and Yeon Gyu-seong, head of the Energy Business HQ of POSCO E&C. This is POSCO E&C`s first project in Africa, and one of the largest energy plant projects in Africa.

Nigeria has a population of 174.50 million, but the total installed capacity is 6500?. Nigeria suffers from chronic power shortages. As a result, the Nigerian government is planning to draw a large-scale private fund and increase power production to 40,000? by 2020.

Yeon Gyu-seong, head of the Energy Business HQ of POSCO E&C energy, said, ``We will make Nigeria our strategic foothold in the African power generation market, and actively make forays into Sub-Saharan Africa, where there is huge untapped demand for energy.``

Meanwhile, POSCO E&C capitalized on its solid technology proven in the coal-fired power plant construction projects in Ventanas, Campiche and Angamos, Chile to become the first Korean construction company to enter the Peruvian energy plant market in 2009, and has since won back-to-back contracts for the Kallpa and Chilca Uno Combined Cycle Power Plants.

POSCO E&C also won an order for the Puerto Bravo gas-fired power plant in Peru last February, consolidating its presence in the energy plant market of Central and South America.