Qatar has signed a series of deals to build a USD 3.8 billion desalination and power plant part owned by Japanese and French firms.

The statement from Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation said that the facility will be completed in 2011 and will be owned and operated by Ras Girtas Power Company, which is jointly owned by Qatar Electricity & Water Company with 45%, a consortium of Japan's Mitsui and France's Suez Energy International with 40% and Qatar Petroleum with 15%. The plant will have eight gas turbine generators, eight heat recovery steam generators, four steam turbine generators and 10 desalination units.

Officials from Qatar and the companies involved in the project signed deals to build the facility at a cost of QAR 14 billion.

Mitsui is the main contractor for the plant, which will produce 2,730 MW of electricity per hour and will have a capacity of 63 million gallons a day.

This will give Qatar a total power generating capacity of 9,000 MW and a desalination capacity of more than 320 million gallons per day.