SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – The economy and energy minister of Bosnia’s Serb Republic Slobodan Puhalac said that the region should continue work on the 1.46 billion euro ($1.86 billion) Gacko power plant project despite the withdrawal of Czech utility company CEZ from the joint venture, Bosnian media reported.
Last week, CEZ said it decided to sell its 51% stake in the project, according to which the Nove Elektrane RS (NERS) joint venture company was planned to build a 660-megawatt (MW) power plant and upgrade an existing power station located near the southern Bosnian town of Gacko.
The Gacko project should go on no matter what the conditions are, business news portal Investitor.ba (www.investor.ba) quoted Puhalac as saying at the weekend.
Local and international media quoted CEZ officials as saying last week that the Czech company was abandoning the project because the Serb Republic has failed to invest its share in NERS by the specified deadline.
The head of NERS, Aleksandar Obradovic, told SeeNews last week that the CEZ decision does not mean the end of the Gacko project as CEZ remains interested in it. CEZ is waiting for the reaction of the Serb Republic's power utility Elektroprivreda RS (ERS) before it decides on its future course of action, he said.
Puhalac also said media reports can not present the issue truthfully and the Serb Republic parliament will decide on the matter in due course.
“Our chances are not small and we can defend our interests and search for a way out of this situation,” Puhalac said.
The construction of the Gacko 2 power plant and the modernisation of the existing Gacko 1 power plant, which has an installed capacity of 300 MW, were scheduled to begin this year and to be completed by 2013.
The Gacko coal mining and power generation complex is located in the southern part of the Serb Republic, near the region's borders with Croatia and Montenegro. Gacko is one of two coal-fired plants in the Serb Republic. The other plant of the same capacity is part of the Ugljevik coal mining and power generation complex located in northeastern Bosnia.
The Serb Republic is one of the two autonomous parts forming war-divided Bosnia. The other is the Muslim-Croat Federation.
($=0.7852 euro)
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