Radio Bulgaria

Russia will finance the construction of NPP Belene via a specially set-up project company. It will invest some 1.9 bln euro within the next 2 years. The aim is to carry out the project until a strategic investor has been selected. This has emerged from a meeting of Economy Minister Traicho Traikov with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shmatko and Sergey Kirienko, CEO of Russian state-owned atomic corporation, Rosatom.

Belene is the first nuclear power plant of the new generation in the region and as such it has certain significant competition advantages,” said Kirienko and added that “if we are to wait for another year, year and a half, this advantage will disappear.” This was how he justified Russia’s interest to invest in the project while Bulgaria was looking for a strategic investor for the construction of the second NPP in the country. This year alone, Moscow plans to invest some 400 mln euro which includes payments for equipment produced in Russia, Germany and France. Next year, Russia is expected to invest another 1.5 bln euro and the funds will not have a state or corporate guarantee. On what does Russia rely against such investment?

“We are absolutely convinced in the competitiveness and profitability of the project Belene,” said Sergey Kirienko. “Part of the funds is a temporal investment. When the Bulgarian government has chosen the strategic investor, it will pay us back the money we’ve invested. Another part of the funds will be paid in installments so that we participate as shareholders in NPP Belene. We’ve also discussion additional financial and legal aspects to make this whole project work.”

Against the financing of the project, Moscow expects to receive a 30-35% share in the nuclear power plant. The Bulgarian side had to resort to Russian financing because banks refused to lend funds. Last autumn the strategic German investor RWE backed out of the project. The Bulgarian government plans to reduce the state share in the project from 51% to 20-30% and in this way it hopes to attract investors. To continue the construction of Belene, the government will set up a joint company in which it will participate with the 1 bln euro invested so far.

“This is the cost of all assets at the site as well as the site itself,” said Economy Minister Traicho Traikov. “The project should be structured in such a way so as to become attractive for investors.”

During the meeting of Traikov and Shmatko, the two officials also discussed the projects South Stream and the pipeline Burgas-Alexandropulis. Minister Traikov put forward the issue of Romania’s participation in South Stream after the latter received an official invitation from Russian Gazprom. This could be seen as a way of looking for alternative routes that could bypass Bulgaria. Moreover, during a meeting of energy ministers in Sofia a few days ago, Gazprom’s CEO Alexey Miller showed up unexpectedly and asked for speeding up of the set up of a joint company for South Stream.

“For us, Bulgaria is a very important partner in the realization of the project South Stream,” said Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko. “Soon we will revise all negotiations on key issues of the project and will speed up all coordination activities.” 

English version: Delian Zahariev