The FINANCIAL — Romania’s first ever privately held power generation plant, which is being constructed with the support of EBRD financing, is on track to go into production by the end of 2011 when it will make a substantial contribution to the country’s energy requirements.
"OMV Petrom’s state-of-the-art new plant is a 860 MW combined cycle power gas turbine (CCGT) being built in the town of Brazi, north of Bucharest. When it is completed next year it will provide approximately eight to nine percent of total domestic output," EBRD informs.
Using the latest available technology, the facility will provide effective and reliable energy with a low environmental impact.
The EBRD is co-financing the construction of the energy efficient plant with a €200 million loan provided in May 2009, alongside a matching €200 million facility from the European Investment Bank.
The plant was visited on Monday by a delegation of the EBRD’s Board of Directors who are in Romania to get an update on the on the country’s investment priorities.
In addition, the EBRD is supporting OMV Petrom to set enhanced standards in the industry with regards to environment, health and safety and to increase the energy efficiency.
The EBRD financing will support a series of projects that include pollution clean-up, the replacement of outdated pipeline, health and safety measures and moves to increase efficiency. In March 2009, the EBRD provided a €300 million syndicated loan to ensure continuous implementation of environmental improvements at OMV Petrom despite limited availability of commercial funding.
“We are delighted to see the significant progress in the implementation of these highly important projects for Romania. The EBRD remains firmly committed to supporting further modernisation of Romania’s power sector and environmental improvements in the industrial sector”, said Claudia Pendred, EBRD Director for Romania.
"I would like to thank the EBRD once again for the confidence in the company's potential that they showed through these loans signed in 2009, during a period in which access to financing became extremely difficult. We are continuing our ambitious investments program in Romania and we’ll make all the efforts to achieve high investments of approximately €1.5 billion for this year", said Mariana Gheorghe, Petrom’s CEO.
Since the beginning of its operations in Romania, the EBRD has committed over €4.8 billion in various sectors of the country’s economy, mobilising additional investment in excess of €9 billion.
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