Earlier this week, the Minister of Energy Davaasuren Tserenpil gave an interview to a local media outlet “iToim.mn” on recent scandalous deals in the energy sector, including the Power Sector Cooperation Agreement (PSCA) with Oyu Tolgoi, and expressed Mongolia’s position on them.

-Will the Government renegotiate Eastern Energy System agreement? Why was the contracted get terminated?

-The agreement violated the article 7.3 of the Investment Agreement, which states to draw electricity from the territory of Mongolia within four years of operation. In other words, the Parliament-consented agreement was hard to amend for the Cabinet without having to negotiated with the Parliament. Thus, the agreement was terminated. Arnaud Soirat, Chief executive of Copper and Diamonds of Rio Tinto Group, said some uncanny remark that the company will establish the plant if the Cabinet issues a demand to draw electricity domestically within four years. That mister still do not understand the Investment Agreement. They accepted that responsibility under the investment Agreement. They were obliged to draw electricity within four years after commencing operations due in 2017. I do not understand what this mister meant by “issuing a demand”.

Generators with over 240MW cannot be installed in Mongolia
-It seems that the location of the power station is currently under discussion?

-I am curious about that. They received a 5-years permission to build the station at the mine from our ministry in July 2012. The permit was expired in 2017. Nothing has been done within that period. They should stop playing with the Government of Mongolia. They did not lift a finger before the Southern Region Power Sector Cooperation Agreement. The 2014 Tavan Tolgoi negotiation was also the same. Therefore, the Cabinet decided to terminate the contract.

-Will the Tavan Tolgoi coal-fired power station project continue?

-The Parliament and Cabinet expressed their position that Mongolia will build the power plant based on Tavan Tolgoi residual coal deposits. It is up to them to select the three options proposed through the Investment Agreement.

-Although Oyu Tolgoi promised to draw power from Mongolia within four years after commencing operations, they violated the agreement. Will they be held accountable for that?

-The Government established a working group on some issues concerning high loan interest, tax act and violation of investment agreement. The group may report their review on that.

-What about Baganuur power station? Are there are talks on terminating the agreement? There are rumors that the Government will go under MNT 512 billion debt if the contract is terminated.

-As for the compensation, there are talks about potential risks with that amount. It does not mean we are obliged to pay them. The thing is, some compensation may come up after the contract termination. It does not mean the power station’s high technology is not incompatible to Mongolia. They are planning to install high-capacity generator that are not suitable for Mongolia’s system. Generators with over 240MW cannot be install in Mongolia. Because we manage our system by drawing 240MW power from the Russian Federation. We will not be able to manage higher generators. The contract was negotiated regardless of the incompatibility. We demanded the investors to install a system compatible with Mongolia. We did not discuss any termination of contract.

-Democratic Party’s group in the Parliament made a statement demanding the Cabinet’s dismissal. What is your position on this?

-Cabinet penalized the related officials regarding the issues around the Ministry of Road and Transport Development. The officials themselves resigned from their position, acknowledging their responsibility.

Published Date:2018-08-20