Turkish companies make up the better part of the list of potential co-investors for the county's Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) project, which is being implemented with the help of the Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom, CEO of the Russian energy giant Alexey Likhachev said on Wednesday.
NIZHNY NOVGOROD (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Turkish companies make up the better part of the list of potential co-investors for the county's Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) project, which is being implemented with the help of the Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom, CEO of the Russian energy giant Alexey Likhachev said on Wednesday.
"The negotiations are underway. Mainly Turkish companies are on the top of the list," Likhachev told reporters.
According to Likhachev, there are also some companies from the middle East among potential co-investors, however, "talks with Turkish companies are in the most advanced stage."
Approval from the Turkish government is necessary for any company to join the project, the Rosatom head added.
Likhachev noted that Rosatom had no plans to sell 49 percent of the NPP project's shares in 2019.
In April, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the delay in finding a co-investor would not affect the time frame for launching the Akkuyu NPP, since the project already had received $3 billion in investments, which was enough to continue construction.
In 2010, Moscow and Ankara signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation on the construction and operation of the Akkuyu NPP. The NPP's four power units which will each have a capacity of 1,200 megawatts are each expected to produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The project's total cost is about $20 billion. The Turkish side expects the first block of the NPP to be launched in 2023.
