According to experts, joint legal claims will not hamper negotiations over Belene NPP's construction

georgi.velev@ klassa.bg


A legal claim of the Russian Atomstroyexport filed against NEK (National Electric Company) over the construction of Belene NPP will not affect the negotiations on the project, said to Klassa daily, Bogomil Manchev, CEO of Risk Engineering Ltd. At the end of last week, ASE lodged a claim for €58 mln with the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris over the project activities implemented by the company which were not covered by NEK. On its part, the state company filed a legal claim for €61 mln against ASE. Bulgaria filed a complaint for an outstanding payment for the old equipment at the plant's site which was purchased by the Russian side. This was the reason for the public electricity provider to suspend the instalments to the Russian subcontractor ASE. NEK representatives added that they had not received any official letter with the requests of the Russian company but, if such a letter is received, they will make their own their claims.

The Bulgarian company proposed that the amounts owed by ASE be deducted and the due payments be squared off but, so far, the Russian side has not agreed on that for reasons unclear to us, explained Manchev. He added that, even now, the working groups are discussing the cost of the project, as well as finalising their work on the technical project.

Until September 10, HSBC' Financial Adviser is expected to submit a report on the construction of Belene NPP. According to Manchev, the initial analysis of the bank showed that the project is viable from an economic point of view.

The Prosecutor's Office has assigned to the Bulgarian Energy Holding to conduct an internal audit of the Belene NPP before deciding whether any funds have been spent unduly and who is to blame for this, explained the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office to Mediapool."Since its setting up in 2006, the Belene NPP has not been subjected to a legal audit. Besides, its legal status is not properly clarified,'' said the Spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General, Steliana Kozhuharova. In November 2010, the Prosecutor's Office commissioned a comprehensive economic, financial and technical expertise of the transaction for the sale of the old Skoda reactors to the Russian company Atomstroyexport (ASE). Besides this deal, the contract for the construction of a water supply system for the plant's site will be also inspected.

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