Orascom Construction, a unit of the Dutch-based OCI, will construct a $3 billion coal-fired power plant on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, it emerged on Wednesday.

It is believed that this construction will be in collaboration with the Emirati-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

Sources close to this project told Al Ahram Online that Nassef Sawiris, the CEO of OCI N.V. and Egypt’s wealthiest man, held talks with Egypt’s Prime Minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, regarding this project last week.

The proposed power station will have a 2.000-3.000 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

“(The power plant) is pending technical studies and governmental and corporate approvals,” Al Ahram Online quoted Orascom Construction as having said.

The power plant will also use “advanced clean-coal technology that complies with European Union standards for emission control,” it has emerged.

Many Egyptian environmental groups are against the use of coal, saying it has severe environmental and health outcomes.

Sawiris, Egypt’s richest businessman, made an undertaking to inject large sums of money in huge investments in Egypt. He made this commitment after his three-year prison term – for tax avoidance – was reversed on Tuesday this week.