Lukoil secures permit for solar investment in Romania

Newsroom 06/01/2014 | 10:14

Lukoil Energy&Gas Romania, a subsidiary of Russian oil major Lukoil, was awarded a permit by energy regulator ANRE to build a solar installation locally, reports Mediafax newswire.

The ANRE awarded a building license for the solar farm at the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery in Ploiesti, southern Romania.

This would mark a further expansion of Lukoil in the electricity generation segment, after it has made several acquisitions of local wind projects in the past two years. Lukerg Renew, a joint venture between Lukoil and Italian energy company ERG, purchased last year a 70MW wind farm from Vestas, in a deal worth EUR 137.5 million. The joint venture made its first acquisitions in 2012, after acquiring two wind projects with a combined capacity of 192MW in Romania.

The core business of the company remains the production and distribution of fuels. Lukoil controls in Romania a network of over 300 retail fuel stations.

Lukoil representatives hinted in late 2013 that the company aimed to build solar installations with capacities up to 12 MW near its Ploiesti-based plant.

According to Transelectrica, Romania reached 543MW of incentivized solar capacities by September 2013, roughly one quarter of total wind installations.

The oil major reported last year a turnover of EUR 1.35 billion in Romania.