15 January 2004
Bangkok Post, October 3, 2003.
(AFP and Bangkok Post)- France's state-owned Electricite{AAC} de France (EDF) has re-committed itself to a controversial hydro-electric power plant in Laos more than two months after withdrawing from the US$1.3-billion project, sources said yesterday.
The decision is expected to be officially announced next week, according to a Lao source close to the project.
"The decision was made. The Lao authorities are awaiting the official letter [from Paris] and should receive it here the next week,'' the source said.
EDF announced in Paris on July 17 it was pulling out of Nam Theun 2 Power Co (NTPC) in which it held a 35% stake.
Its withdrawal came a day before the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) was due to sign a 25-year power-purchasing agreement in Vientiane with the company.
EDF said at the time that the decision reflected a "strategy to consolidate assets and re-focus priorities in Europe''.
NTPC had hoped to begin work on the four-turbine plant, dam and reservoir, located 250 km east of Vientiane on the Nakai Plateau, early next year so that it would be fully operational by 2009.
The Lao source said EDF's prompt return would ensure the original deadline could still be met.
Electricite{AAC} de Laos and the Electricity Generating Plc (Egco) of Thailand each have a 25% holding in NPTC, which was set up in August last year to build and operate the project under a 25-year concession. Thailand's Italian-Thai Development Plc holds a 15% stake.
An executive of Egco said the company had not received confirmation yet from EDF about a decision to return.
"Everything can be changed as long as we don't see written confirmation from the French partner,'' he said, adding that the partners might still need to discuss a new shareholding structure despite the return of EDF.
The project has faced several delays since NTPC was formed in 1997.