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Business / Qatar Business

Qatar’s Nebras to transform power generation industry

Published: 08 Aug 2018 - 12:54 am | Last Updated: 03 Nov 2021 - 06:24 pm
Peninsula

By Satish Kanady I The Peninsula

DOHA: Nebras Power, a joint venture of Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), and Qatar Holding, will play a leading role in the global shift in terms of the nature of power generation industry, pioneering new energy solutions.

In collaboration with its global partners, the company will play key role in the tansformation of energy generation toward renewable, clean natural gas and creation of knowledge-based economy, Nebras said.

The move away from hydrocarbons toward renewable power generation means that hundreds of new renewable power plants around the world will need to be built while others would need to be repowered with cleaner fuel. Both construction of new-built generation and repowering of old plants will create new investment opportunities for Nebras.

The accelerating adoption of electric vehicles will mean road transport moving away from oil. This will result in massive new source of demand for electricity, further opening new opportunities for Nebras, the company said in its 2017 annual report.

Nebras sees a growing role of clean natural gas in the global economy. With continuing retirement of oil and coal generation there is already a growing need for fast-start, clean generation that can supplement renewables and also operate full-time as baseload when needed. This is a role for which natural gas is an ideal fuel, and – considering that not every country has access to gas – for Qatari gas exports and, potentially, ownership of the entire value chain, from the gas well to the individual electricity consumer. Clearly, Nebras has a critical role to play in this aspect and development of such value chain, to ensure the grass-root demand for Qatari gas, from around the globe and for the decades to come.

Another aspect in which Nebras is already playing an important role is the transition to knowledge-based circular economy. The essence of Nebras and its value to Qatar and its people is smart investment and equally smart development of power generation assets and energy value chains. This is a high-value added activity which is typical of highly developed stakeholder driven economies.

“Economies of Singapore, Hong Kong, or London – or even larger economies like Denmark, or Netherlands - create huge amounts of wealth from activities and companies similar to Nebras. These economies thrive on exploring new trends, technologies, and knowledge-based activities. While Qatar will likely generate wealth from the exports of its natural resources for many years to come, an integrated growth of a parallel knowledge-based economy, with an equally global scope, is a critical necessity. Again, Nebras’ intentions to become one of the leading players in the global power industry, is a key element of Qatar’s transition to this new knowledge-based economy,” Nebras Chairman Fahad Hamad Al Mohannadi said.

Nebras will play an ever-growing and important role in the national energy and water strategy, contributing to the fulfillment of Qatar’s national vision as a highly-developed nation with an economy based on knowledge, he said.

One of the key corporate achievements of Nebras in 2017 has been the successful arrangement and execution of a multibillion dollar financing by Minejesa Capital B.V. a joint venture owned 35 percent by Nebras Power.

The objective of Minejesa Capital B.V. joint venture owned 35 percent by Nebras Powe, is to invest in power projects internationally and to raise financing in the global financial markets for such projects.

The financing package consisted of $900m 20-year amortizing bond, $1.2bn 13- year amortizing bond and a 6-year $650m corporate loan facility. Moody’s and Fitch both assigned investment grade ratings to the bonds.

Nebras CEO Khalid Mohammed Jolo said after June 2017 Nebras refocused its effort more on growing its business in the South East Asian, African and Latin American markets, which are of significant importance for Nebras.

In the global context and outside of Mena, these are the markets that continue to provide a desired combination of demand growth and long-term contracted offtake arrangements.

Nebras has issued bids for a number of opportunities in South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. These bids covered a large spectrum of assets and geographies, from a large South East Asian renewables portfolio spanning through Japan, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, to solar and wind assets in Brazil, Chile and South Africa, to combined cycle assets in Thailand, West Africa and the United States. Nebras expects the results of these bids, for some of which Nebras has been shortlisted, to materialize in early 2018.

“Looking forward to 2018, Nebras plans to continue this path of strong growth, moving forward toward its stated objective of becoming one of the leading global investors and developers in the power generation and water desalination industries,” the CEO said.