Japanese Sumitomo Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) are in talks with Saudi Arabia to build a power plant to meet soaring electricity demand in the country.
The Japanese trading house and TEPCO, the world's largest power utility, are set to invest 500 million dollars in the project.
The two, together with local Saudi firms, would build a power plant at a site called PP9, 55 kilometers northeast of Riyadh, with an output capacity of 900,000 kilowatts.
The plant would sell power to SEC, a Saudi power firm affiliated with the government, for 20 years starting from 2002.
Sumitomo and TEPCO aim to conclude the deal by the end of the year.
Saudi Arabia expects domestic power demand to grow 4.5 percent annually through 2020 on the back of the nation's industrialization and population growth.
The government needs investments of at least 120 billion dollars to meet that requirement - (AFP)
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