23 May 2011 13:40

Lukoil, ERG setting up renewable-energy JV

MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - Lukoil Ecoenergy LLC, a wholly owned Lukoil subsidiary, and the Italian company ERG Renew have signed an agreement on the parity creation of a renewable-energy joint venture to be called LUKErg Renew.

A Lukoil press release says LUKErg Renew will be set up in the context of a memorandum of intent concerning cooperation in the field of renewable energy sources signed July 2010.

The joint venture will initially operate in Bulgaria and Romania and subsequently in Ukraine and Russia, in line with a business plan that should be approved in the next few months and confirmed by the end of this year.

The parties will contribute EUR 35,000 proportionally to their involvement. Anti-trust regulators should approve the joint venture's creation.

One of Lukoil Ecoenergy's priority business lines is projects involving the generation of power by water, wind, and sun. It began operating at the start of this year, and now encompasses the Belorechenskaya, Krasnopolyanskaya, Maikopskaya,, and Tsimlyanskaya HydroPower Plants with combined generating capacity of 296.8 mWt.

ERG Renew is part of the ERG company group and generates power mainly by wind energy. It has eight win-farms (245 mWt in all) in Italy and six (64.4 mWt) in France.