ARG HAS INVESTED $376 MILLION IN FIFTH UNIT OF HRAZDAN POWER PLANT

ARKA
Nov 4, 2009

YEREVAN, November 4, /ARKA/. Armenia’s national gas operator
ArmRosGazprom (ARG) said in a statement it has invested a total of
$376 million in the fifth unit of Hrazdan thermal power in 2006-2009,
including $248.8 million paid for the Hrazdan facility, of which
almost $189 million in natural gas supplies to Armenia.

According to the statement, the fifth unit of the power plant will
come online in 2010 July. ‘As a result Armenia will have effective
and competitive 400 megawatt power generating capacities.’

The statement said the company has brought state-of-the-art equipment
to assemble the steam generating unit of the fifth unit that will
make the project unique not in the region but also in the word.

The Hrazdan power plant will be working on Iranian gas and will sell
part of electricity to Iran as payment for gas.

ARG’ statement said the company has received a 4,000 kilowatt-ampere
transformer and besides a block transformer, two German-made water
boilers, as well as Alstom-made equipment for the gas turbine are
going through the customs clearance and will arrive at the site soon.

Anatoliy Podmyshalsky, deputy chairman of ARG and head of a Gazprom
department in charge of former Soviet republics, was quoted as saying
that everything is being done to have the fifth unit come online in
2010 summer.

ARG was founded in 1997. The Russian Gazprom owns 80% in it, the rest
is held by the Armenian government.