Government expects agreement with investors by late May

Project meant to help meet growing domestic and export demand

(Reuters) - Ivory Coast is near a deal with foreign investors to build a 330-megawatt thermal power station near the commercial capital Abidjan as part of wide-ranging efforts to boost energy production, a senior official said on Wednesday.

A final agreement between the West African state and the yet unnamed investors will be signed by the end of May, paving the way for construction of the plant in Abatta to be completed by 2016, Sabati Cisse, energy director for the country's ministry of mines and energy, told Reuters.

"Capacity at the Abatta thermal power station will come in 110 MW stages and will reach its final phase by 2015-2016," Cisse said on the sidelines of a visit to a newly renovated substation in Abidjan.

Cisse said building of the station would be a joint project between state oil and gas company Petroci and the investors. The project's cost would be announced later, he said.

Unlike many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ivory Coast usually has an enviably reliable power supply and exports power to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali, all on the same network. It currently has plans to add Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to its grid as well.

But consumption is rising. In 2010 it increased by 3.5 percent to 4,010 gigawatt hours and the government has launched ambitious plans to upgrade the power sector and keep up with domestic and export demands.

The world's top cocoa producer is recovering from a decade long political crisis that resulted in years of economic stagnation and a civil war last year.

Under new President Alassane Ouattara, the government said last July it would pour $500 million into power generation by 2015 and in November announced plans to build a 275-megawatt hydroelectric power station in the west of the country to be completed in 2015 or 2016.

"Today, our annual production is around 6,000 GWh. We estimate that in the two to three years to come, we will grow gross production by around 10 percent," said Dominique Kacou, who heads Ivory Coast's national power company, the CIE.

"Our needs are enormous. We've had major delays in investment. We urgently need to invest 275 billion CFA francs ($550.92 million). Then afterward, we can return to normal investments of 30 billion (CFA) beginning in 2014," he said.

Ivory Coast's six hydroelectric stations and three thermal stations have a total production capacity of around 1,000 MW, but weather has made hydroelectric output unreliable.

Cisse said on Wednesday London-listed short-term power supplier Aggreko {AGGK.L} would also soon boost its production in Ivory Coast from 70 MW to 100 MW. ($1 = 499.1680 CFA francs).