Moscow, September 25:

A Russian company is in talks to supply electricity to Pakistan over a 30-year period in a deal worth up to $90 billion, business daily Kommersant reported on Monday. Electricity would be supplied by Russian export monopoly Inter-RAO from plants under construction in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, the company’s deputy general director Alisher Kalanov told the newspaper following negotiations with the Pakistani government last week.

Exports could begin within six years and would require investment of several hundred million dollars, he told the paper.

The deal would be worth between $2.5 billion and three billion dollars per year over 30 years, supplying 50-60 billion kilowatt-hours per year to Pakistan, whose current annual production is 82 billion kilowatt-hours, the paper said.

Last year Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems said it was looking to export of electricity from two hydro-electric plants under construction in Tajikistan and a thermal power plant being built in Kazakhstan, all due to come on line in 2009.