The energy ministry has offered potential buyers of PPC’s bailout-required sale of lignite units an additional incentive by extending the lease of a state-owned lignite mine in the Ahlada region supplying the sale package’s Meliti power station until 2023 with an option for a further extension until 2028.

These five and ten-year extensions, offered to Lignitorihia Ahladas, the firm utilizing the mines, have been included in a ministerial decision signed by energy minister Giorgos Stathakis on the eve of Christmas.

According to the decision, Lignitorihia Ahladas will need to maintain its lignite production at a level of at least 2 million tons per year, unless unfavorable conditions for which the firm is not responsible end up prevailing and stifling output.

The lignite deposit at the Ahlada mine has been estimated at 32 million tons, according to a technical and financial report submitted by Lignitorihia Ahladas to the energy ministry last May, when the firm requested an extension of its contractual arrangement concerning the mine.