BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/10/2010

Bogdanka coal miner close to supply deal with Kulczyk Holding

Warsaw (Platts)--4Oct2010/656 am EDT/1056 GMT

Independent Polish hard coal miner, Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka, is close to signing a 2 million mt/year supply deal with Polish investment company, Kulczyk Holding, which is planning to construct power plants in Poland and neighboring Belarus, Bogdanka CEO Miroslaw Taras said Monday. "We are talking with Kulczyk Holding about coal supplies for their future investments. The talks do not concern specific projects but coal supplies in general for the Kulczyk group's energy investments," Taras told state news agency PAP. "The talks are very far advanced. Today, the agreement is not signed but we are very close to signing it," he added. Bogdanka, near Lublin, southeast Poland, has proven hard coal reserves of 254.7 million mt. The company produces around 5.5 million mt/year but plans to double production by 2014 through the expansion of its Stefanow field. In July, Kulczyk Holding, which is owned by wealthy Polish businessman, Jan Kulczyk, signed a preliminary agreement with Belarussian state energy company, Belenergo, to build a 920 MW hard coal-fired plant in Belarus, near Hrodna in eastern Belarus about 70 km away from the Polish border. The cost of the project is estimated at Eur1.5 million ($2.07 million) with a tentative completion date of 2015. In September last year Poland and Belarus signed a memorandum to cooperate in the building of new generation capacity and grid interconnections. Currently the two countries have just one 220 kV interconnector between the Polish city of Bialystok and Ross in Belarus with a capacity of 215 MW. Another of Kulczyk's vehicles, Kulczyk Investments, is planning the 2 GW capacity Elektrownia Polnoc power plant in Pelplin, south of Gdansk, north Poland by 2015. Separately Taras said Bogdanka is also in negotiations with Polish power company Enea about coal supplies for the utility's planned units at its 2.88 GW capacity Elektrownia Kozienice power plant in Swierze Gorny, located about 75 km south east of Warsaw. Last month Enea said it wants to launch a tender to construct a 1 GW capacity unit at the plant in the third quarter of next year. "We are talking with Enea but it's too early to talk about details. I would say we are closer to to signing a deal with Kulczyk Holding than Enea," Taras said. --Adam Easton

Source:

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/HeadlineNews/Coal/8021261/


Share |



Partners:
Face.by Social Network
Face.by