IC Ictas recovers Russia deal to build Turkish nuclear plant -sources

Turkish contractor IC Ictas re-captured a deal to build a $20-billion nuclear power plant run by Russia’s Rosatom at Akkuyu in southern Turkey, two sources with information on the matter told Reuters.

Last month, the Russian state nuclear energy company terminated a contract with its Turkish partner IC Ictas over what it called “numerous violations”.

Rosatom said at the time it had a new agreement with TSM Enerji to finish work on the 4,800-megawatt plant, prompting Ankara to step in to resolve the dispute.

A source close to the company and another source familiar with the decision said IC Ictas got the contract back, without giving further details.

IC Ictas was not immediately available to comment.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met on Friday in Uzbekistan. Russia’s IFAX agency reported that Putin told Erdogan that agreements on power plant construction were signed on Thursday.

Ankara aims to start operating the first reactor at the plant before presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023. The plant is expected to produce up to 10% of Turkey‘s electricity once all four reactors are in operation.

Settling the construction matter could bring more funding from Rosatom – and more relief to Turkey‘s badly depleted foreign reserves.

After a big boost to the central bank’s FX reserves in July, bankers cited inflows of some $5 billion from Russia, though authorities have not commented and do not publish such data.