Serbia's EPS Eyes $30 Mln World Bank Loan to Help Drain Flooded Coal Field

Serbian state-owned energy utility EPS said on Friday it is eyeing a $30 million (23.1 million euro) loan from the World Bank to help finance the pumping out of the flooded Tamnava-West open-cast field run by coal miner Kolubara.

Tamnava-West was inundated during the record floods the hit the Balkan state in May.

The loan is expected to be approved on October 3, EPS said in a statement, adding that draining the flood waters is expected to start in mid-September.

In August, EPS selected local company Energotehnika Juzna Backa and Romania's SC NESS Proiect Europa SRL to pump out the flooded coal field.

The estimated volume that would need to be pumped out is around 187 million cubic meters.

EPS unit Kolubara, which produced 30.7 million tonnes of coal in 2013, supplies the Nikola Tesla thermal power plant which covers more than 50% of Serbia's domestic electricity consumption.

Source: SeeNews