Spokesman: Libyan technicians to operate Ubari power plant instead of Turkish ENKA

The Presidential Council said on Tuesday that it will take over Ubari power plant as its Turkish contractor left the project unfinished over security concerns.

The spokesman of the Head of the Presidential Council, Mohammed El Sallak, said in a press conference in Tripoli that Libyan technicians who were trained in Germany and Turkey will operate the power plant.

“They (technicians) were trained to operate the power plant in the absence of foreign experts. They will start operating the power plant this month, which would increase the public power networks by 600 megawatts,” El Sallak explained.

In late 2017, unidentified gunmen kidnapped four foreign workers in the power plant of Ubari, some 1,100 km south of Tripoli. About 600 workers, including foreigners, evacuated the city after the kidnapping, before the four kidnapped workers were released in July 2018 under tribal mediation.

The construction of the power plant began in 2012 but was suspended in 2014 with deteriorating security conditions in Libya, before the Turkish contractor ENKA Teknik resumed work in February 2017.