President of OAO “LUKOIL” Vagit Alekperov and Astrakhan Oblast Governor Alexander Zhilkin attended today in Astrakhan the ceremony to lay the capsule for the two combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants on site the city’s boiler station Tsentral’naya. The ceremony will mark the beginning of construction of the two units, totaling 235 Megawatts in power.

It is planned that the two 120 and 115 Megawatt CCGT plants will be commissioned in the third quarter of 2013.

The efficiency of the new CCGT plants, conforming to the highest world standards, will exceed 51% and ensure that specific consumption of fuel to produce power is reduced by one and a half while the rate of harmful emissions are two or three times below those from a conventional heat and power station.

130 Gcal/hour of heating power produced by the CCGT plants will suffice to supply heat to the residential area Babayevsky both in the near future and in the course of its further development.

The new plants is another LUKOIL’s project in Astrakhan, implemented as part of the Agreement on Supplies to Wholesale Power Market, under which the Company already commissioned a 110 Megawatt CCGT plant, April 2011.