China enters Peru hydro-electric sector
A consortium led by China Three Gorges Corp has agreed to buy a giant hydro-electric plant under construction in Peru from scandal-mired Brazilian company Odebrecht. The Chinese consortium, also including Hubei Energy Group, is reported to be paying $1.39 billion for the Chaglla power plant, which is located on the Río Huallaga in Chaglla and Chinchao districts of Huánuco region. The Chaglla complex has recieved $150 million in funding from the Inter-American Development Bank and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. When completed, it will be Peru's third largest hydro-electric facility.
China Three Gorges, which built the mega-scale Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in the 1990s, has already broken into the Brazilian hydro-power sector through a number of subsidiaries, with ventures operating concessions for the Sao Manoel and Ilha Solteira projects in São Paulo state, and the Jupia facility in Santa Catarina.
Earlier this week, China's Sinohydro announced it had been awarded a contract to construct Bolivia's Ivirizu plant, in Cochabamba department, and the conglomerate last November completed Ecuador's Coca Coda Sinclair complex, straddling the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos. The company is also part of a consortium building the Chicoasen II hydro plant in Mexico's Chiapas state. (Reuters, HydroWorld, El Periódico, Barcelona, Aug. 25)
China lays claim to 80% of Ecuador oil production
Only two years after opening, thousands of cracks are splintering the machinery of Ecuador's Coca Codo Sinclair dam. Its reservoir is clogged with silt, sand and trees. And the only time engineers tried to throttle up the facility completely, it shook violently and shorted out the national electricity grid. To settle the bill, China gets to keep 80% of Ecuador's oil, with many of the contracts to be repaid in petroleum. (NYT, Dec. 24)