Bulgaria ready to file Belene counter suit against Russian company
MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax) - Bulgaria is ready to file a counter suit against the Russian company involved in the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, the Bulgarian Economy Ministry said on its website.
Bulgaria has legitimate counterclaims, especially against the lawsuit amount, the website said.
Later Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEC), the company that ordered the plant, announced it would file a 61 million euro lawsuit against Atomstroyexport, the general contractor in the project. NEC said Atomstroyexport owes it the money for old equipment that was on the site of the incomplete plant (construction of the plant was suspended in 1990 and resumed in 2006) and that it was contracted to buy.
Atomstroyexport said Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris against NEC for 58 million euros for work it had completed. It also said there could be further lawsuits because the Bulgarian company had not fulfilled its obligations.
Although a general contract on the building of the plant has not yet been signed, the Russian company is preparing the site and equipment.
Atomstroyexport says NEC is not keeping to the payment schedule. It said it has had to file a lawsuit because the company may face problems from Russian fiscal authorities over a failure to obtain export revenue and as a result failure to pay taxes on that revenue.
NEC said the delay in payments is a result of Atomstroyexport's failure to buy back the old equipment.
Atomstroyexport has posted losses since 2007 and its loss was almost 7 billion rubles in 2010. The company attributes the losses partly to lengthy negotiations with customers delaying implementation of commercial projects.
The Belene Power Plant agreement was signed in 2006, however the actual construction of the plant has not yet begun because the final volume of funding for the project has not been approved. The Russian company said it would keep the price at 6.4 billion euros and undertake the risk of a possible increase in cost. Bulgaria hired HSBC to provide value the project.
Two reactors with 1,000 megawatt capacity each are planned.