Russia’s largest hydropower producer RusHydro and the world’s top aluminum maker RUSAL are together negotiating to raise a 32 billion ruble loan from Vnesheconombank for the troubled Boguchansk Energy and Metallurgical Association (BEMA) hydro/aluminium plant project, according to Vedomosti Business Daily.
If realised, 22 billion rubles of the credit will go towards completing construction on the Boguchanskaya hydro power station on the Angara River and 10 million rubles will be put into the construction of an aluminum plant.
The Boguchanskaya station was due to be started this year with the start of production in three units, which have an overall capacity of one GW. The power station may reach its maximum output in 2012. The station is 80 percent ready and the aluminum plant is 30 percent ready, RusHydro and RUSAL spokesmen said.
The initial sum required is around $1.6 billion, ccording to RusHydro. The company will need about 34 billion rubles, he added. The partners will have to find another 12 billion rubles to complete the projects.
The original 2007 agreement between the companies states that the two companies finance the station and the aluminum plant on a parity basis. RusHydro manages the construction of the station, while RUSAL manages the construction of the plant. However each company can block the other’s decisions, a facility that has already led to some friction when in 2008 and 2009 RUSAL exercised its veto right, claiming that the station’s construction cost was overestimated and construction had been suspended for seven months.
