Abu Dhabi-based Al Jaber Group said on Monday its energy division had won a $1.6 billion infrastructure building contract at the green city being built outside of the UAE capital.

Al Jaber Energy Services would start work "shortly" at Masdar City and complete construction in three years, Fatima Obaid Al-Jaber, the group's chief operating officer, said.

"We signed the contract in early January," she told reporters at a construction conference in the UAE capital organised by London-based Meed.

State-controlled Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co (Masdar) said this month it would cost $22 billion to develop Masdar City, which would eventually be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 business.

Masdar was set up by the Abu Dhabi government to develop sustainable and clean energy. It aims to put the emirate of Abu Dhabi, holder of more than 90 percent of the UAE's oil reserves, at the forefront of the future energy industry.

The UAE is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. - Reuters