"A Quantum Leap for STEAG" / Iskenderun Power Plant on stream after just 39 months of construction work

Essen, Germany (ots) - STEAG reports success: Upon completion of construction work within a period of only 39 months, the biggest power plant project in the company's history is now on stream. Absolutely on schedule, the hard coal-fired power plant located in Southeast Turkey went into commercial operation on 22 November 2003. "This is a quantum leap for STEAG," said Dr. Jochen Melchior, CEO of the company.

As from today, the two generating units every day will be providing a capacity of 1,210 megawatts to the public Turkish energy utility TEAS - enough to cover as much as eight percent of the national power demand. With a capital expenditure of 1.5 billion US dollar, the plant in Iskenderun is the largest German investment project in Turkey, and STEAG's largest investment project in Turkey, too.

As recently as about three years ago, the foundation stone of the power plant was laid on a "greenfield" site on the shores of Iskenderun Bay; trial operation commenced already in summer this year. Despite of difficult boundary conditions, the project partners STEAG, Siemens and GAMA managed to bring the plant punctually on stream. Thus STEAG now operates a second power plant abroad, besides the Termopaipa Power Plant in Colombia.

In the power industry, not only the power plant itself but also the so-called Transshipper is considered to be a high-tech facility. This Transshipper is the largest floating unloading crane for hard coal and transfers offshore as much as 30,000 tons of coal per day from large ocean-going vessels which can not anchor in the shallow bay to smaller transport units which can then discharge the coal to on-shore conveyor belts.

"With the new plant now in operation, we are looking ahead to 2004 with confidence" said Mr. Melchior.

Pictures and further informations are available for download at www.steag.de