The West African nation is pushing for heavy investment in power production and aims to boost electricity output by around 80 percent over the next six years to satisfy growing domestic and regional power demand.

The gas-fired Azito plant outside the country's commercial capital Abidjan currently has production capacity of 280 megawatts and provides state power utility CIE with more than a third of its electricity.

"The project has solid fundamentals and very strong support from all stakeholders," Globeleq's CEO Mikael Karlsson said in a statement posted on the company's website.

"Once operating, the facility will produce 50 percent more power using no additional gas and therefore no further emissions," he said.

The expansion is expected to cost around 210 billion CFA francs (272.4 million pounds), a company official told Reuters in November.

Thursday's statement said 80 percent of the project's financing will come from lenders including the International Finance Corporation - the investment wing of the World Bank - and European development finance institutions.

Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co Ltd will build the extension with construction due to be completed by early 2015.

Ivory Coast, a regional economic powerhouse before a decade-long political crisis divided the nation in two, has an enviably reliable power supply by regional standards and already exports electricity to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali.

The political impasse officially ended with a brief civil war in 2011, and the country is now seeking to upgrade long-neglected infrastructure and plans to add Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to its grid.

Despite the improvement of the security situation, suspected supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo continue to launch sporadic attacks within the country.

Dozens of gunmen attacked the Azito power station on October 15, causing damage that forced the shutdown of one of its two turbines. Company and government officials said in mid-November that the damage had been fully repaired.

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and James Jukwey)

By Joe Bavier