Jun 23 - Evening Chronicle - Newcastle-upon-Tyne

A power plant built on Tyneside for Saddam Hussein is finally going to Iraq - after sitting in a Tyneside warehouse for 18 years.

Two turbine generators were part of a pounds 70m order from Tyneside engineers Northern Engineering Industries from the Iraqi government back in 1990.

But as the first Gulf War loomed large, the British Government stopped the transaction halfway through and two of the four planned generators that had already been made were put into storage.

They sat in a warehouse in the East End of Newcastle until a surprise phone call from the new Iraqi Government.

Now, 18 years, two wars, and the fall of a dictator later, the turbines and other equipment will be delivered - and will be used to generate much-needed power at the Al Shemal power plant.

Carl Ennis, managing director of Siemens power generation in Newcastle, which now owns the former NEI Parsons site where the generators were kept, said: "At the start of the year the Iraqi ministry of energy got in touch to ask if it could have the equipment it had ordered before the first Gulf War.

"Since then we have been in negotiations to secure funding to cover the costs incurred by us having the equipment here for such a long time."

When the contract was cancelled by the Government in 1990, NEI - which was owned by Rolls Royce - was forced to cut 600 jobs.

At the time, the company said it hoped it would break even on the project by selling the generators on to other countries or by reselling them to Iraq when diplomatic relations were restored.

Instead, they were put into storage and remained on Tyneside until now.

But soon the equipment will set sail on the 3,000-mile journey to Iraq.

Mr Ennis said: "They've been on Tyneside for a long time and a lot of it was completely mothballed so a lot of it won't be fit for use in Iraq immediately, but the Iraqis are sorting that out.

"From an Iraqi point of view, I think this is excellent news for them. They are having trouble with the supply of power in the country and this will help them a great deal.

From a Siemens point of view, Iraq is still a dangerous place to go and we won't be sending anyone from here to work on the power station when it reaches Iraq.

"But this is a very positive thing because we are giving something back to Iraq."

In 1990 Northern Engineering Industries was Tyneside's largest employer.

But it was hit hard by the recession of the early 1990s and NEI was sold off in bits - including the old Parsons site in Byker.

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