Lukoil urges start to talks with government on CPA-2
BUDYONNOVSK. June 24 (Interfax) - Lukoil believes talks with the government concerning Capacity Provision Agreement-2 (CPA-2) must begin, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov told journalists.
With the commissioning of the combined-cycle steam-gas unit in Budyonnovsk, Lukoil has fulfilled its commitments under the CPA program. "But this is just the first stage, because we are worried about the situation that has taken shape on the Russian market. The CPA fulfilled its task: 30 gigawatts of capacity was added. Unfortunately, today there is the question of 20 gigawatts of capacity in Russia not being included in the competitive selection of capacity. As a rule, these are power plants located in city centers," he said, mentioning Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar as examples.
"We believe that a dialog with the government needs to begin on CPA-2 to modernize plants associated with supply city residents," he said.
As a rule, these stations were built in the 1950s and 1960s. He expressed the hope that the dialog that has begun with the Energy Ministry will produce the relevant statutory documents.
Margins in the power generation sector are currently extremely thin, Alekperov said. "Questions concerning the indexation of tariffs for electricity, for heat, are constantly arising. For that reason, we reckon that the company will not make additional investment, over and above those obligations assumed under CPA, until the issue of stimulating the modernization of production capacity built before the 1990s is resolved," he said.
