The Egyptian government has chosen Bechtel Power Corp, from among seven world companies, to design the country's first nuclear power plant. Bechtel offered to do the work for around LE1 billion over a 10-year period, Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy Hassan Younes said. A committee formed from different governmental bodies selected Bechtel because it submitted the best and cheapest bid, according to the tender document. Speaking to the press yesterday, Younes said the winner would be invited to discuss the terms of the agreement as a prelude to signing the contract. Younes said Bechtel would be charged with evaluating and selecting from different nuclear energy technologies on the international market, as well as choosing sites for reactors and applying international safety standards. In an exclusively interview to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Younes said he would start negotiating with the winning company over the coming two weeks to reach the best possible offer in terms of price, as the ministry will work to reduce the price to less than LE1 billion.
The contract is expected to be signed with the winning company in January so that work, which will last about ten years, can kick off immediately On November 3, 4 and 26, Al-Masry Al-Youm exclusively confirmed that Bechtel would win the tender after it was ranked first in the technical evaluation with 804 points and submitted the cheapest bid. Bechtel was competing against six other consortiums, including Australia's WorleyParsons (WOR.AX), Sweden's AF Consult, a consortium of Spain's Iberdrola (IBE.MC) and Empresarios Agrupados, a consortium of Finland's Poyry (POY1V.HE) and Invap of Argentina, a consortium including Belgian Tractebel (TBLE3.SA), and a group of U.S. companies with Egypt's Excel.
