NEK

Two companies are interested in the reactors of the Belene NPP, announced Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, reported BNR.

Investor interest may be satisfied only after the project is privatised and carried out as a private project. Petkova appointed out that, according to the agreement between NEK and Atomstroyexport, interest on the Belene deal has been waived.

Lawmakers have approved on a first reading a bill that will allow state energy company NEK to pay nearly EUR 630 M to Russia's Atomstroyexport.

Bulgarian wholesale electricity supplier NEK has repaid EUR 309 M in outstanding debt owed to coal-fired AES 3C Maritza East I power plant, a subsidiary of U.S.-based AES Corporation.

State-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) group has said that it will invite a consortium of ??n?? IMI, Bank of China and J.P. Morgan Securities for talks on extending bridge financing of up to EUR 650 M to its indebted subsidiary NEK. 

Bulgaria's energy regulator KEVR said on Wednesday that it hasn't discussed capping prices of electricity purchased by state-owned National Electricity Company NEK from two local thermal power plants owned by U.S. investors.

"We fully comply with the provisions laid down in the Energy Act," KEVR Chairman Ivan Ivanov told reporters, according to investor.bg.

AES Bulgaria, the local unit of  NYSE-listed AES Corporation has said it will provide all the necessary information to assist a possible inspection of alleged irregularities in the energy sector by the country's Chief Prosecutor's Office as it had done in previous inspections.  

Bulgarian Parliament overturned its former decision Thursday for preferential pricing of renewable energy installations across the country.

US-based ContourGlobal said on Friday any change in its long-term contract for electricity sales from its Bulgarian power plant Maritsa East 3 should safeguard the investments it has made.

Senior coalition partner GERB has tabled amendments to the Energy Act removing the preferential prices paid by state-owned energy utility NEK to buy electricity from new renewable energy sources.

GERB's motives for a no-confidence vote on the government's energy policy are hypocritical, claimed Socialist MP Krasimir Yankov.