Qatar has signed a series of deals to build a $3.8 billion desalination and power plant part-owned by Japanese and French firms.

The facility will be completed in 2011 and will be owned and operated by Ras Girtas Power Company, a statement from the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation, which will purchase the power and water from the plant, said.

The Ras Girtas Power Company is jointly owned by the Qatar Electricity and Water Company (45 per cent), a consortium of Japan's Mitsui and France's Suez Energy International (40 per cent) and Qatar Petroleum (15 per cent).

The plant will have eight gas turbine generators, eight heat recovery steam generators, four steam turbine generators and 10 desalination units.

Officials from Qatar and the companies involved in the project signed deals to build the facility at a cost of 14bn Qatari rials ($3.8 billion).

Mitsui is the main contractor for the plant, which will produce 2,730mw of electricity per hour and will have a capacity of 63m million gallons a day.