Bulgaria has for now rejected a Russian offer to fund its Belene nuclear
power plant and will instead focus on finding a strategic investor for the
project, Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said on
Wednesday.
In February, Moscow offered to provide up to 1.9 billion euros to
recession-hit Bulgaria to keep the troubled project rolling and Sofia then
agreed to pave out details of a financing deal.
But both the European Union and the United States have since reminded
Sofia about its already heavy dependence on Russian gas and oil and encouraged
the Balkan country to seek Western investors for the nuclear
project.
"After a strategic investor for Belene is chosen, the offer of the
Russian partners might be included in the financial structure of the project,"
state news agency BTA quoted Traikov as saying.
"We have already informed our Russian partners," he added.
The new centre-right government, elected last July, has questioned the
need for Belene as Bulgaria did not need so much power capacity for domestic use
and because of the project's costs, which it said could reach 10 billion euros
($13.32 billion).
The cabinet put the project on hold after German shareholder RWE
<RWEG.DE> pulled out last November and said it will be carried out only if
backed by strategic investor, pointing out that Bulgaria will not spend more
public funds on it.
It is reluctant to abandon Belene altogether due to the hundreds of
millions of euros already invested in it and the compensation it would have to
pay to the Russian contractor -- state-owned Atomstroyexport.
State power utility NEK, which oversees Belene, will pick in June a
consultant to help it organise a tender for investors and structure the
financing for the plant in June.
Traikov had earlier explained the decision to possibly take a Russian
loan by saying the project could lose its appeal if it was entirely frozen in
the coming year, during which Sofia hoped to find a strategic
investor.
Russian officials have said they might seek a majority stake in the
plant for the funding, an option Sofia has rejected as unacceptable.