Global technology leader GE has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with Mass Global Investment Company, an independent power producer (IPP) in Northern Iraq, for the maintenance of its gas turbines in the country.

The agreement is designed to support Mass Global maintain the high reliability and overall performance of 18 GE gas turbines installed at the Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk power plants, located in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, said a company statement.

The long-term agreement covers the supply of parts and repairs services for planned outages of the GE Frame 9E gas turbines over a period of 12 years, it stated.

Reinforcing its commitment to support Iraq’s expanding energy infrastructure, the GE agreement will also support the building of local technical expertise with a tailored training program for over 30 Mass Global engineers, the statement added.

Ahmed Ismail, chairman of Mass Global pointed out that the company continues to be at the forefront of meeting the power requirements of the Northern Iraq region.

'This new service agreement builds on our growing relationship with GE, whose proven and reliable advanced energy technology has been employed in our gas power facilities since 2006,' he said.

'The long-term partnership with GE will also enable us to enhance our operational efficiencies as well as develop our staff competencies, to help meet the energy requirements in this region,' he added.

The key components of the contract also include inter-changeability of the latest parts technology for Mass Global’s installed base, joint outage planning to provide the highest reliability, specially expedited parts delivery and customized field training program for its engineers.

Joseph Anis, GE Energy’s president and CEO for the Middle East said: 'This latest service agreement with Mass Global, which includes a tailored training program for local engineers, is designed to ensure real time support.'

'It builds on our growing relationship with Mass Global, supporting their efforts to enable a reliable supply of much-needed electricity in the Northern region of the country,' he remarked.

'The agreement also reflects our expanding knowledge transfer initiatives and further underlines our commitment to strengthen Iraq’s power generation capacity and infrastructure growth with advanced technology and high quality services,' he added.

This agreement follows earlier announcements that GE is supplying Frame 9E gas turbines to Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk provinces.-TradeArabia News Service