Actividades de Construccion y Servicios signed a preliminary agreement in 2018 to jointly develop the 11,000 megawatt project, but the Spanish and Chinese developers had been unable to agree on how to proceed to construction.
An ACS spokesman said in an email to Reuters: "The ACS group will not participate in the execution of the project.” He provided no explanation for the decision to withdraw.
A spokesman for the government agency overseeing development of Inga 3, part of a planned series of dams along the Congo River that could eventually produce more than 40,000 MW, said Congo was awaiting formal notification of ACS's withdrawal.
In December, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi floated the idea of reverting to earlier plans to build Inga 3 with a 4,800-MW capacity and gradually expand later.
Much of the output from Inga 3, which was expected to take eight years to build, has been earmarked for South Africa, with the rest going toward Congo's mining sector and population.
(Reporting by Clara-Læïla Laudette; Additional reporting by Hereward Holland; Writing by Juliette Jabkhiro and Hereward Holland; Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)
