South East Europe’s largest oil and gas producer Petrom announced on Monday that it approved a new project to build a gas fired power plant in Romania. The company said its Supervisory Board approved the project on Friday, June 15. The plan involves a total investment of 500 million euro. The start of power supply is estimated for the end of 2010.

Werner Schinhan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Petrom says in a press release that “the power market will be subject to major structural changes, especially in those countries where aged capacities are to be replaced by new, cleaner less carbon intense technologies.

“Considering this environment, to enter the power market is an excellent opportunity for Petrom, one of the major gas producers in Romania. This project sets the strategic growth path of Petrom and OMV Group as it is one of the company’s sources of diversification and sustainable development.”

According to the press release, the 860 MW power plant will be built on the premises of Petrobrazi refinery and will be supplied with natural gas through a pipeline of Transgaz.

Approximately 20% of the power plant capacity will be used to supply the demand of own consumption (both in Refining as well as in the Exploration and Production segment) and the rest will be distributed in the national power grid.

The construction of the power plant will start in 2008 and full production capacity of the plant is likely to be delivered to the Romanian power grid by end of 2010.