Bosnian region and Chinese companies to build 350 MW coal-fired plant

Dunav osiguranje ad Banja Luka

12/12/2017 13:51

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Bosnia's autonomous 
Serb Republic and two Chinese companies agreed on Tuesday to 
form a joint venture to build a 350 megawatt (MW) coal-fired 
power plant that will ultimately replace the ageing 300 MW Gacko 
plant  RITE.BJ  in the southeast of the Balkan country. 
    The region's energy minister and officials of the China 
Machinery Engineering Company and Emerging Markets Power Fund 
signed a deal to form a joint venture that will be 51 percent 
owned by the Chinese parties with the rest held by the Serb 
Republic.  
    The Gacko 2 project is expected to cost more than 1 billion 
Bosnian marka ($588 million) and will be financed mainly by the 
Chinese, Energy Minister Petar Djokic said, adding that the 
investment would be the largest in the Bosnian Serb region since 
the end of the 1992-95 war. 
    Chinese companies have already built and helped to finance 
the 300 MW coal-fired Stanari plant in the north of the region. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1BV3AA 
    Chinese investors are increasingly boosting their presence 
in the Balkans as the European Union, the World Bank and other 
institutions cut back on coal financing. In Bosnia alone they 
are considering energy and infrastructure projects worth more 
than 3 billion euros  ($3.5 billion).  
    Last month Bosnia secured a 613 million euro loan from 
China's Exim bank  EXIMC.UL  to help Bosnian utility EPBiH 
 JPES.SJ  to build a new generating plant at its Tuzla 
coal-fired power station, located in Bosnia's other autonomous 
region, the Bosniak-Croat Federation.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1NX4BC 
    Also in November, Chinese energy conglomerate China Energy 
Engineering Corp (CEEC) 3996.HK  sealed an agreement on a 1 
billion euro investment in a 430 MW coal-fired plant and the 
Kamengrad coal mine in the north of the Bosniak-Croat 
Federation. 
($1 = 0.8507 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Gordana Katana; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; 
Editing by David Goodman) 
 ((daria.sito-sucic@thomsonreuters.com; +38733 295 484; Reuters 
Messaging: daria.sito-sucic.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: BOSNIA ENERGY/CHINA