Turkish Company Karpowership Begins Construction of Four Floating Power Plants
Each new floating power plant will generate 300 MW and can connect to a national grid within 30 days. The vessels are designed for shallow ports, expanding the range of locations where they can operate. The announcement comes as Karpowership continues to deal with payment disputes in Gabon. Turkish energy. . .
Each new floating power plant will generate 300 MW and can connect to a national grid within 30 days. The vessels are designed for shallow ports, expanding the range of locations where they can operate. The announcement comes as Karpowership continues to deal with payment disputes in Gabon. Turkish energy company Karpowership has begun construction of four new floating power plants at the HSG Sungdong shipyard in South Korea. Construction officially started on June 30 with a steel-cutting ceremony attended by the company's co-founders, Osman Murat Karadeniz and Orhan Remzi Karadeniz. The four vessels belong to Karpowership's new Sea Lion class. Each will produce 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity using three combined-cycle gas turbines. The technology recovers heat from the turbines to generate additional electricity, improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions compared with conventional thermal power plants. The company expects to deliver the four floating power plants between January and May 2028. Each vessel measures 136 meters in length and has a draft of just 4. 5 meters. This allows the plants to operate in shallow ports that cannot accommodate larger floating power stations. Karpowership said the vessels can begin supplying electricity to a national grid in less than 30 days once the required grid connection infrastructure is in place. The Sea Lion class will expand Karpowership's fleet to 49 floating power plants with a combined installed capacity of more than 8,000 MW. The company did not disclose where the four new units will be deployed. Karpowership has been operating in Gabon since September 2024 under an agreement with the former Société d'Énergie et d'Eau du Gabon (SEEG), which has since been dissolved. The company supplies up to 150 MW of electricity to the Greater Libreville area. In October 2025, local media and social media users blamed Karpowership for repeated power outages, accusing the company of failing to meet its commitments. Karpowership rejected those claims, saying the outages resulted from factors beyond its control, including low reservoir levels, failures on high-voltage transmission lines, and poor fuel quality. In March 2026, the company warned the Gabonese government that it would suspend electricity production unless it received immediate payment of CFA15 billion (about $23 million) in overdue bills. The government released CFA7 billion (about $11 million) to prevent service disruptions. The following month, SEEG repaid another CFA30 billion (about $49 million) using emergency funding raised through a government-backed bond issue on the local financial market. Despite those payments, the financial situation remains fragile. Before it was split into two separate entities on June 25, SEEG owed more than CFA149 billion to its suppliers, according to Universal Access to Water and Energy Minister Philippe Tonangoye. Infos Gabonreported that the payments made in March and April were not enough to clear those outstanding debts. Abdel-Latif Boureima