PowerChina announced on Thursday that it is implementing 59 projects in 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region under the Belt and Road Initiative.

A press statement by the Chinese construction giant, which is ranked as world's largest engineering contractor by trade publication ENR, listed key projects delivered or under implementation in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Iraq

PowerChina’s Iraqi Model Schools project includes the construction of 679 schools in 10 governorates in Iraq over land area totalling 198,230 square metres. The ground-breaking ceremony for the project was held on 18 June in Baghdad.

In October 2021, Zawya Projects had reported that PowerChina won a contract worth nearly $1.3 billion for the construction of schools in Iraq.

PowerChina was the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor for 707-megawatt (MW) Rumaila combined-cycle power plant project, the first power plant project in Iraq funded by a Chinese company after the war. The two units of the project were completed and commissioned in April 2022.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, PowerChina is the main contractor for the construction of ship and offshore oil platform production and repair yards at the King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex. When the project is complete, the port will become the world's largest shipyard, with the ability to manufacture and repair super-tankers and offshore rigs. The contract worth more than $3 billion was awarded to PowerChina in November 2018, according to online industry news portal Seatrade Maritime News.

PowerChina is also implementing the Saudi Red Sea Utility and Infrastructure project, the first large-scale commercial utility project in the world to integrate complementary multi-energy solutions. Subsidiary SEPCOIII is the main contractor for the project.

The project includes a 340MW solar photovoltaic plant with a captive battery energy storage system (BESS) plant at a design capacity of c. 1,200 GWh, three seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants totalling a capacity of 32,500 cubic metres per day and a sewage treatment plant.