OMV Petrom's electric power plant will start production at the end of 2011 and is currently being built in Brazi, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  The power plant in Brazi, north of Bucharest, will feature a gas turbine. When finalized, the power plant will provide up to 9 percent of the electricity produced in Romania.

EBRD co-finances the development of the power plant with a EUR 200 million loan, granted in 2009 together with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has offered an additional EUR 200 million.

The EBRD financing will support a series of projects that include pollution clean-up, the replacement of outdated pipeline, health and safety measures and moves to increase efficiency.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 EUR 300 million syndicated loan to ensure continuous implementation of environmental improvements at OMV Petrom despite limited availability of commercial funding.

"We are continuing our ambitious investments program in Romania and we’ll make all the efforts to achieve high investments of approximately EUR 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 EUR 4.8 billion in various sectors of the country’s economy, mobilising additional investment in excess of EUR 9 billion.

editor@romania-insider.com