Sohar Power appoints expert to report on turbine damage

10/03/2012 07:51 AST

Sohar Power Company SAOG, which owns and operates a 585 MW gas-fired power plant and 33 million gallons per day desalination facility at Sohar Industrial Estate, says it has appointed an expert to look into technical problems faced by its gas turbines that led to unscheduled downtime for repairs with consequent impact on revenues.

In a disclosure notification to the Capital Market Authority, the company revealed that Laborelec, a specialist international technical firm, will undertake a Root Cause Analysis of the problem, which is also being performed by the gas turbine manufacturer Siemens.

According to the company, a routine inspection during scheduled major maintenance work revealed a crack in one of the retaining rings in two of the plant's three gas turbines. The scheduled outage had to be extended until the repairs were completed. Similar problems were also discovered in the third gas turbine, which is now under repairs. The latter is expected to return to full operation on March 20, 2012, the company said.

"The financial effect on the company in the first quarter of 2012 is not yet defined, as insurance coverage of part of the costs and losses will only be determined upon identification of the cause for the defects," statement said.

After a review of the company's draft audited accounts, the Board of Directors decided not to recommend the payment of a final dividend for the year 2012. Actual net profit for 2011 slumped to RO 2.522 million versus RO 4.562 million in 2010. Earnings per share are RO 0.091 in 2011 as against RO 0.164 in 2010. An interim dividend of 8 per cent (80 baisas per share) was paid in November.

Oman Daily Observer