Iraqi-owned URUK Engineering Services and Canada's SNC-Lavalin Group have been shortlisted for $255 million in contracts to install gas turbines in three power stations, an Iraqi official has said.

Laith al-Mamury, the head of the investments and contracts office in the Iraqi Electricity Ministry, said SNC was a finalist for contracts to install the turbines in two of the three sites. Dubai-based URUK was shortlisted for one site.

'We have recommended these two companies to the cabinet and we are waiting for approval,' Mamury told Reuters.

Mamury said the three sites would produce 660 MW of power.

The ministry, starved of resources this year after tumbling oil prices forced Iraq to slash its 2009 budget three times, had $100 million of the money needed, and would divide that up among the three sites for start-up costs.

The balance -- $155 million -- would be funded in the 2010 budget, Mamury said.

The gas turbines being installed were delivered by General Electric under an earlier contract. – Reuters