Enel: The Government must make a decision this year on Cernavoda reactors 3 and 4

Government needs to make a decision this year on the construction project of reactors 3 and 4 in Cernavoda, Italy’s Enel group following to decide whether to stay involved in the project or not. “We will not quit the project. The project is under a question mar. We told our people that, in conditions in which the largest shareholder plans to sell half of the project, half of the stake, and it did not find a buyer yet, it’s not clear whether the project continues. If it doesn’t, we will quit”, Luca D’Agnese, CEO Enel Romania, stated on Wednesday at the ZF Power Summit. Enel official stated that at the time there was no significant risk for the project not to find investors. The project, assessed at EUR 4bn, was initiated in 2007 and works were planned to start in 2010. Initially the project company included Enel (Italy), ArcelorMittal Romania, Nuclearelectrica, CEZ (Czech Republic), RWE (Germany), Iberdrola (Spain) and GDF Suez (French-Belgian group). CEZ Group announced in October 2011 the sale of shares owned in the project to Nuclearelectrica S.A., and in January 2012 companies GDF Suez, Iberdrola and RWE Power announced in turn the withdrawal from the project, for reasons related to each company’s strategy. At the same time, Mircea Metes, chief engineer of Nuclearelectrica’s electricity trading department, stated during the same conference that Cernavoda units 3 and 4 couldn’t be commissioned earlier than 2019, if their construction continued, and they would operate for 40 years.