By Tansa Musa YAOUNDE (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction will invest 75 billion CFA francs in building a 232 MW gas-fired power plant in Cameroon, state radio in the central African country said on Friday. The plant, which will be installed at Logbaba by September 2010, aims to increase power supply to southern Cameroon, particularly the economic capital of Douala, which is battling chronic power shortages. "We plan to send the power produced from this plant to the southern internconnected network (RIS)," said Celestin Ndonga, general manager of Cameroon's Electricity Development Corporation (EDC). Ndonga said the RIS currently only produced 630 MW but demand was around 1,000 MW and would rise by 20 percent by 2012. Investors have long complained that Cameroon's economic potential is not being fulfilled due to chronic power problems. Capacity at the Logbaba plant is expected to increase to 355 MW by 2012, Ndonga said. The Logbaba gas deposit holds proven and probable reserves of 104 billion cubic feet of gas beneath the outskirts of Douala, Cameroon's largest city and main industrial centre. London-based explorer Victoria Oil & Gas Plc (VOG) secured rights for the deposit in late 2008 and is set to begin production in late 2009 or early 2010. "Once it is being produced, it is expected that energy injected in the RIS will supply six regions of the country: the centre, the south, the coast, the west, the north-west and the south-west," Ndonga said. Cameroon relies heavily on hydropower, making its electricity sector extremely vulnerable to droughts, severely hampering economic and industrial development. Ndonga said Cameroon and Hyundai aim to accelerate the completion of the Logbaba gas power station within six months because expected harsh dry season conditions this year may aggravate power shortages and blackouts in the country. Successful development of Cameroon's estimated 500,000 MW of hydroelectric potential could make the country a net electricity exporter in the future. It has significant gas reserves estimated by the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) at over 500 billion cubic feet, 150 billion already proven by drilling. | 
