Ukraine sees $100 mln EBRD energy loan in November
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 12, 2000
KIEV - Ukraine hopes to get a $100 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to buy fuel and replace capacities to be lost in the Chernobyl plant closure, a government official said yesterday.
"Currently technical work on the loan is being carried out and everything will be signed by mid-November," Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko told reporters.
The loan will be used to buy fuel ahead of winter season for thermal power stations to compensate for a six percent loss in national generating capacity due to the planned Chernobyl closure on December 15, Tymoshenko said.
A spokesman at the EBRD resident office has previously said the board will discuss the issue in October.
Ukraine does not have sufficient energy resources to meet its full demand. Even during the summer many regions across the country of 50 million were regularly plunged into darkness in the evening.
The government is also negotiating a $300 million loan from investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston. Part of the loan will be used to buy Russian natural gas.