Cap des Biches Oil-Fired Power Plant I

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The 135MW Cap des Biches heavy fuel oil (HFO)-fired power plant is located in Rufisque near the Atlantic coast, 23 km east of the capital city of Senegal, Dakar. The plant was initially built with a capacity of 82MW and runs on naphtha fuel produced at the SAR refinery.The existing 82MW gas-fired plant will be refurbished and a new 53MW flexi-cycle HFO, combined cycle and steam powered plant will be built next to the existing facility, along with a short transmission line of around 500m connecting the plant to a nearby substation. The project sponsor is CONTOUR GLOBAL and it has signed an agreement with the Senegalese national utility, Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (SENELEC), to rehabilitate the existing brownfield site and construct the new 53 MW thermal facility under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (“PPA”). The total project cost is USD $114.5 million to be financed in a debt to equity ratio of 80:20. Financing will be used to rehabilitate and expand the Cap des Biches power plant complex. The US-government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is the only lender on the deal, providing roughly USD $91 million in debt. The International Finance Corporation is also providing an 18-year cross-currency swap to Euros of OPIC's US Dollar financing and will have a loan equivalent exposure of $9 million. OPIC’s involvement in the deal is linked to the US government’s Power Africa initiative, under which it has pledged more than $1.5 billion in funding towards Africa power projects to date.