UPDATE 2: Russia plans to buy power turbines from Iran for Crimea

(Adds comment in paragraph 4)

ABU DHABI, Feb 20 (PRIME) -- Russia plans to sign a contract with Iran to buy turbines for a thermal power plant in Crimea, CEO of state industrial corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov said on Monday.

“We are at a final stage of negotiations with Iran. We hope that we will install the turbines by the year’s end if the Americans or the Europeans do not invent some new sanctions,” Chemezov said.

Chemezov earlier said that the contractor for construction of the power plant, Technopromexport, will be unable to launch the first units in Crimea on time, in 2017. The company is in negotiations to purchase generating equipment, he said.

A spokesman for the Energy Ministry told PRIME that the ministry has not received a notice from Rostec that it is delaying the launch of the units.

Two gas-powered facilities with a total capacity of 470 megawatts are constructed in the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol, commissioning of the first units of the two plants is scheduled for September 2017 and of the second for March 2018.

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