Romgaz announced to investors that it has terminated the contract for the construction of the combined cycle gas plant at Iernut, due to delays in this project. The plant, the first major electricity generation project in Romania, after many years, should have been completed a long time ago, writes e-nergia.ro.

The notice of termination was sent on April 2, 2021.

The Iernut plant, with a capacity of 430 MW, would become, after completion, the second greenfield investment in the classic generation of electricity in Romania since the fall of communism, after Petrom’s combined cycle plant, of 860 MW. The project has a value of 268 million euro and was awarded by Romgaz to the Romelectro-Duro Felguera consortium. The plant should have been completed earlier this year, after several deadlines, then, the new deadline was the end of the year.

At the end of last year, Romgaz announced that it still accepts the extension of the deadline for the completion of the Iernut gas plant, as the builders wanted, but did not explicitly say that it will terminate the contract with the Romelectro-Duro Felguera association.

At the end of February, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, said that this project was a total failure for the Romgaz management.

“There was a total failure of the old management of Romgaz, who were content to say that we have a turnkey contract and it is the responsibility of the construction company to give the turnkey contract. Look, the construction company failed and what do we do? We must resume the works, to complete by the end of the year this investment, which is absolutely necessary,” said the minister.