The rising power requirements of the region’s states would give more opportunities to Italian companies to enter active markets as Qatar, said a chief of a major firm from the Mediterranean country, operating in the power sector. Anthony Tropeano, CEO of Fata, which has stakes in a host of fields, including power generation, said Qatar’s power sector is bound to grow manifold and HE the Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs, Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada, indicated this in his opening address of the Power Gen Middle East 2010 on Monday. Fata was the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor of Qatalum in Mesaieed and has demonstrated its class, calibre and quality. Speaking about an industry as power-consuming as aluminium, the Italian official felt that with huge resources of natural gas, Qatar could still provide finished aluminium products at cheaper prices compared to its competitors from elsewhere. “Its easy availability of gas could still attract more power consuming industries to the country and thus more opportunities would come to power generation companies in future,” he said. According to him, Qatalum is the second largest supplier of aluminium in the region, accounting for more than 575,000 tonnes per annum. Tropeano, who is familiar with the energy conditions of the region, said in the next five to six years, most number of activities in the power sector is bound to take place in the region’s countries. “Among them, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are in the top priority of international power generation firms,” noted the Fata CEO. One of the reasons why Tropeano is confident about companies from Italy winning bids in the country is its ever-expanding trade relations with Qatar. “Italy is among the largest trade partners of Qatar these days,” he said. The official said the expertise of his company in power sector is well known from its successful execution of two major projects in Zargan and Bandar Abbas in Iran. “For a company like ours, which always focuses on updating its technologies, there is no shortage of work. And with Qatar all set to build such gigantic projects as railways and a major port in Doha, its power requirements would grow at an astonishing pace,” said Tropeano. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=390335&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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