15-years on from construction – Wood Group’s Dorad Power Station now powers Genocide

As the Aberdeen-based company is sold off to Dubai-based Sidara, we reflect on the company's legacy of powering Israel's war crimes.

In November 2010 Aberdeen-based Wood Group signed a £563 million contract to build an 800-megawatt, natural-gas power station near Ashkelon for Dorad Energy — a plant that was forecast to produce roughly 8% of Israel’s electricity. 

15-years on the plant is now a crucial piece of Israeli energy infrastructure. It fuels Mekerot - the Israeli water company responsible for enforcing water apartheid, businesses working in the ever-expanding network of illegal settlements, and Israeli Defence Force military bases engaged in plotting and carrying out the genocide of the Palestinian people. 

Construction of the plant started in 2011, and it was finished in 2014. At the time it became Israel’s largest privately owned power station. 

During its construction Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) activists repeatedly held actions and put pressure on Wood Group to end their involvement in a project which they predicted would have devastating consequences for Palestinians.  

In 2014 over 40 protestors gathered outside the Wood Group AGM to engage with shareholders and the public, while a further 4 protestors/shareholders gained entry to the AGM itself. Protestors outside held up a large banner stating: “Wood Group: Stop Powering Israeli Apartheid”.  

Inside the AGM the Wood Group board were urged to reconsider their stated intention to expand operations in Israel.  The day's events were filmed by Al Jazeera as part of a documentary on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign, and were reported in the local and national media. The protest received wide support from organisations in Aberdeen, as well as nationally.  

In 2015 the impact of SPSC’s actions was clearly having an impact on the Wood Group. They moved their AGM 5km to an industrial estate on the outskirts of Aberdeen and drastically reduced the time of proceedings. However, determined SPSC activists were in attendance and challenged the board on their complicity in apartheid once more. 

At the time Wood Group failed to address basic questions about their links with illegal Israeli settlements and state institutions, including Mekerot and the Israeli Ministry of Defence.  The latter, shortly after the completion of the power station, was responsible for carrying out the 2014 massacre in Gaza, including the deaths of over 500 children.  

15-years on from construction Dorad, located just 10km north of the devasted Gaza strip, now powers the infrastructure of genocide. 

In August 2024, 11 months into Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, The Israeli Defense Ministry prolonged its power supply agreement with Dorad Energy (operators of Dorad Power Station) for IDF military bases.

The IDF are responsible for the deaths of 65,344 human beings and the wounding of 166, 795 more in Gaza since October 2023. Energy infrastructure, including Dorad power station, is essential in allowing the IDF and the Israeli war machine to carry out these horrors.

In 2014, Wood Group’s leadership dismissed any concerns that the plant was contributing to energy apartheid, the expansion of illegal settlements, and IDF assaults on Gaza. “If we ever thought it would compromise or contradict our core values, we would not have done it” stated outgoing chairman Allister Langlands in the Press and Journal. 

15 years later, the 'core values' Wood Group claimed to uphold have never been more compromised. Dorad now powers the worst crime of all. That of genocide.