July 5 (SeeNews) - Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP], said on Wednesday it has resumed work at its Brazi power plant after the plant successfully passed the respective tests.
The plant's operations were halted in April due to a steam turbine transformer failure coupled with a previously announced failure of one gas turbine transformer.
"After replacement of the steam turbine transformer, the plant has resumed operations and is now available at half capacity (420 MW)," OMV Petrom said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
The plant is expected to become fully operational in October after a replacement of the gas turbine transformer.
The Brazi power plant is located in Prahova county, in southern Romania, and is the largest private greenfield project for electricity generation in Romania. It started operating in 2011, following a 530 million euro ($601 million) investment by OMV Petrom.
With two gas turbines, two heat recovery boilers and a steam turbine, the power plant has a capacity of 860 MW and an increased designed efficiency of approximately 57% comparing with the average of 30% of units in Romania with similar capacities.
OMV hold a 51.01% stake in OMV Petrom shares, the Romanian state, via the energy ministry holds 20.64%, Fondul Proprietatea holds 12.57%, and 15.78% is in free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.
Shares of blue chip OMV Petrom were traded 3.93% up at 0.3040 lei at 1237 CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
($=0.8815 euro)