Azerbaijan, Baku, April 8 / Trend A.Taghiyeva /
Turkey is now in a position of dependence on Russia in the energy sector, and the country intends to put Russia in a state of dependence on Turkey to balance the forces of the countries, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Taner Yildiz told reporters in Baku on Monday.
According to him, for this, Turkey has developed a joint project with Russia to build the nuclear power plant in Akkuyu.
"At a time when the model of nuclear power plant construction based on the principle 'foreign company builds - the state pays' is being practiced over the world, we have a different approach with Russia. The NPP construction project will be financed by Russian companies that will be operating the power plant for the next 15 years," Yildiz said.
Thus, Russia that has involved the Russian banks in investment of $22 billion in the project, will be to some extent dependent on the Turkish energy sector, Yildiz said.
"If the plant fails to produce electricity, Russia will be the loser. This is quite a risky for project them," the Minister said.
The first Akkuyu nuclear power plant will be built in accordance with the Russian project, providing for the construction of four power units with VVER-1200 type reactors. The agreement on the construction of the plant was signed in May 2010.
The capacity of each unit will be 1,200 megawatts. It is assumed that the units will be put into operation successively at intervals of one year.