Up to EUR 4.5 bln to be invested in AGRI and resulting natural gas could be more expensive than the one from Russia.
According to EnergoNuclear director Dragos Popescu, the deadline for the construction works on Cernavoda nuclear power plant’s reactors 3 and 4 has been postponed from 2015-2016 to 2019, HotNews informs. Thus, the value of the investment in reactors 3 and 4, estimated at EUR 4 bln in 2008, will be reanalyzed.
EnergoNuclear, the company that will build the two units, is waiting for new offers from investors. “We will estimate a new value based on potential offers. We will conduct a new feasibility study,” EnergoNuclear director Dragos Popescu stated yesterday during a press conference organized by the Economy Ministry. EnergoNuclear will conduct a study that will show whether the Danube – Black Sea Canal has to be widened. Widening the Canal would hike the costs by approximately EUR 1 bln. In April sources from the energy sector stated that the China Huadian Group wants to become an EnergoNuclear shareholder.
The investors will be selected by March 2012 by selling them EnergoNuclear shares owned by Nuclearelectrica. After the new investors are selected Nuclearelectrica plans to keep 40 per cent participation within EnergoNuclear. According to the investment timetable that Popescu presented, construction works are expected to last from August 2013 to July 2019. Asked whether the state should own the majority shares package in this project, Popescu answered: “Provided it has the money.”
Nuclearelectrica is forced to look for new shareholders for this investment after energy groups CEZ (Czech Republic), RWE (Germany), Iberdrola (Spain) and GDF SUEZ (France-Belgium), the groups that had signed the investment agreement in 2008, pulled out of the project.
On the other hand, the investment in the AGRI project, a project that seeks to bring Azeri natural gas to Romania by transiting Georgia, is estimated at EUR 1.2 – 4.5 bln, depending on the transport capacity. The natural gas it will transport could turn out to be more expensive than the natural gas imported from the Russian Federation. “The feasibility of this project will be ascertained through a feasibility study,” Corneliu Condrea, director within the Economy Ministry, stated yesterday during the same conference.
He added that the feasibility study recommends negotiating with Turkey so that the ships that will bring Azeri natural gas to the Constanta harbor would then transit the Bosporus Strait.
The government recently approved a list of the main projects to be conducted in the form of public-private partnerships, four of them concerning the energy sector. The total value of the four energy sector projects surpasses EUR 10 bln. A project consists of building reactors 3 and 4, another of the AGRI project, a difficult project that could compete with Nabucco over the sources of natural gas, the third consists of upgrading the thermal power plant in Doicesti, a power plant the Economy Ministry wants to save at all costs, and the fourth consists of building the Tarnita-Lapustesti hydropower plant.
Tarnita-lapustesti hydropower plant to come online in 8 years
The hydropower plant in Tarnita-Lapustesti, Cluj County, will come online in 2019 following an investment estimated at EUR 1.028 bln and will be built by a mixed company in which state-owned Hidroelectrica will own 51 per cent of the shares, the document presenting the project shows, Mediafax informs. Razvan Cojoc, Hidroelectrica’s director of development, presented the document during a press conference. The project company will be owned by private partners that will hold 49 per cent of the shares and “will be invited to contribute only through direct financing,” Cojoc added. Apart from the initial investment, Transelectrica will connect the Tarnita power plant to the national electricity grid, an operation that will cost an estimated EUR 135 M.
Cojoc added that “it’s possible there will be Chinese investors” interested in taking part in the investment. The authorities have held talks with 150 potential investors interested in this project. More than 10 companies made it on the short list. In order to finance the power plant, the project company will draw credits by using the shareholders’ collaterals. The process of attracting investors will take place from June 2011 to January 2012 and the roject company will be created in February 2012.
China huadian engineering to take part in EUR 700 m project in Doicesti
Stefan Arama, head of Termoelectrica’s privatisation service, stated during the press conference organized by the Economy Ministry that on April 14 Termoelectrica signed a memorandum of cooperation with China’s China Huadian Engineering company, establishing the structure and plan of the investment in Doicesti. “The talks were attended by Eximbank China too, the latter analyzing the project. We believe that the Chinese company will invest in Doicesti,” Arama added. He pointed out that the Chinese company could take over a series of coal mines in Wallachia in order to secure the raw materials needed by the power plant in Doicesti.
Two new units with a total installed power of 500 MW will be built, through a mixed company, at the Doicesti power plant owned by Termoelectrica. The two new units will produce electricity by burning coal. The investor’s contribution will cover at least 30 per cent of the project’s value. The remaining 70 per cent will be covered through credits contracted by the mixed company. Arama considers that if this cooperation project fails then the Doicesti power plant will be closed. According to the Economy Ministry, construction works will start in March 2012.
