2 Sep 2009 18:18

OGK-1 to purchase around 800 hectares of land near to its GRES operations by year

MOSCOW. Sep 2 (Interfax) - OJSC OGK-1 will buy 789.8 hectares in land near its Iriklinskaya, Kashirskaya and Permskaya GRES facilities (271.5 hectares, 281.5 hectares and 236.8 hectares, respectively) by year's end, the company said.

The genco's board of director approved this decision on August 28. OJSC Inter RAO UES , which manages the genco, has instructed it to prepare and approve a schedule for the land purchases.

At present, the territory around the GRES facilities is available for unlimited use by OGK-1. However, according to law, as of January 1, 2010, such land usage would no long be applicable for commercial enterprises. Therefore, usage should be changed either to land leasing or private ownership.

For example, for the land near Iriklinskaya GRES, a preliminary agreement has been reached with the local administration for a possible purchase. This would be implemented through paying off the accounts receivable of the administration for the Novoorsk district in the Orenburg region in return for heat power. The district's accounts receivable comes to around 31 million rubles, a source close to the GRES told Interfax.

The purchase of land around these GRES facilities will allow the company to reduce the risk of increasing rent payments for the sections in the future while also facilitating a boost in the genco's capitalization.

OGK-1 includes six GRES facilities. The land near the other stations (Nizhnevartovskaya, Urengoiskaya and Verkhnetagilskaya) is currently under lease. The genco's future strategy regarding these land sections will be reviewed later bearing in mind their economic viability, OGK-1 told Interfax.

OGK-1 includes the Permskaya, Verkhnetagilskaya, Kashirskaya, Nizhnevartovskaya, Urengoiskaya and Iriklinskaya district electric stations (GRES) with total installed capacity of 9,531 megawatts.