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### Viewing cable 09SOFIA69, BULGARIA'S BELENE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - BUYERS

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09SOFIA69 | 2009-02-17 14:02 | 2010-12-20 21:09 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Sofia

`

    VZCZCXRO4314
    PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSR
    DE RUEHSF #0069/01 0481414
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    P 171414Z FEB 09
    FM AMEMBASSY SOFIA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5772
    INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
    RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
    RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
    RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000069

    SIPDIS

    PASS TO EUR/CE TOM YEAGER

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2019
    TAGS: ENRG PGOV PREL BU
    SUBJECT: BULGARIA'S BELENE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - BUYERS
    REMORSE ON ALL SIDES EXCEPT RUSSIA'S
     REF: 08 SOFIA 0815

    Classified By: Amb. Nancy McEldowney for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

    ¶1. (C)  Summary: Despite its status as Bulgaria's highest priority energy project, the Belene Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is foundering.  Marred by cost over-runs, financing problems, infighting between strategic partners, rumors of corruption, and serious delays, the project is looking increasingly like a lemon.  The relationship between the government and the project's strategic investor, the German RWE, is one of mutual buyer's remorse.  But with 700 million euros in sunk costs, in addition to priceless political capital already invested, the government is unlikely to walk away from the project.  End Summary.

    ¶2. (C) When Bulgarians talk about the Belene nuclear power plant, they increasingly do so in hushed tones.  Issues of delays, financing woes, non-transparent horse-trading and side deals, Russian influence, middle-man rent seeking, and the interests of well-connected politicians and energy oligarchs inevitably come up.  Belene's construction offered the perfect chance for Bulgaria to decrease its independence on Russian energy sources.  But the Stanishev-led government, indebted to Russia-connected energy oligarchs, let the
    opportunity slip away.  In 2006, Bulgaria chose Russian company AtomStroyExport over a Skoda-led consortium as Belene NPP's main contractor.  The tender was managed by former Minister of Economy and Energy Rumen Ovcharov, a pro-Russia energy maestro, who left office (but not political life) in June 2007 after an energy-related corruption scandal.  The Belene deal lacked transparency and reeked of side deals involving the proposed South Stream gas pipeline and the long-term gas transit contract Ovcharov was negotiating with
    Gazprom at the same time.

    -------------------------------
    ONE OLD PROJECT GETS A NEW LIFE
    -------------------------------

    ¶3.  (C) Belene was originally started in the 1980s, but was
    abandoned in the early 1990s due to lack of funds.  In 2005,
    to make up for the European Commission's decision to close
    Bulgaria's Kozluduy NPP reactors 1-4, the Bulgarian
    government approved the construction of a new 2000 MWe plant
    at Belene.  (Note:  Kozluduy units 1 and 2 were shut down due
    to safety concerns in 2003, while units 3 and 4 were taken
    off-line at the end of 2006, on the eve of Bulgaria's EU
    accession.)  The Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEC)
    hired WorleyParsons as the strategic architect engineer for
    the financing and construction of the plant in 2005.
    Belene,s two units (1 and 2) will be of the Russian A-92
    design (third generation) with pressurized water reactor
    (PWR), each producing 1000 MW electric power.  The main
    contractor of the project, AtomStroyExport, is working with
    the main foreign contractor CARSIB Consortium (Areva and
    Siemens).  In December 2008 NEC and RWE (Germany) signed a
    strategic investor agreement for the project with NEC
    controlling 51 percent and RWE with 49 percent.

    ¶4.  (C)  Bulgarian company participation in the Belene
    project is approximately 30 percent.  (Note:  Risk
    Engineering is one Bulgarian-owned company involved in
    Belene.  It is owned by notorious Bulgarian energy oligarch
    Bogomil Manchev, the "godfather" of the Bulgarian nuclear
    sector.  He has an ownership stake in 10 different firms and
    is the sub-agent for hundreds of other firms).  The French
    bank PNB Paribus financed the pre-construction loan of 250
    million Euros.  Currently, teams are preparing the site for
    new construction by tearing down old infrastructure from the
    1980s.  The plant's construction is expected to begin in late
    2009 or early 2010.  Construction will be in two stages.
    Unit 1 was originally planned to come on-line in 2014-2015
    followed by Unit 2 in 2015-2016, according to the Belene NPP
    Managing Director, Jordan Georgiev.  These time frames are
    now widely in doubt.

    ---------------
    BUYER'S REMORSE
    ---------------

    ¶5.  (C)  Despite its due diligence, our contacts tell us Belene,s strategic investor, RWE, is now experiencing regret about its purchase.  According to XXXXXXXXXXXX, RWE

    SOFIA 00000069  002 OF 002

    worries about the project's lack of transparency and the need
    to work with AtomStroyExport.  RWE wants to enforce European
    business practices, and is now demanding to review all
    Belene-related agreements.  RWE is reportedly negotiating
    with Belgium's Electrabel to join it as a subcontractor
    (likely to be announced in mid-March) to help re-inforce
    standard European business practices.  RWE's insistence on
    reviewing all agreements is causing Bulgaria heartburn.
    Delays of 3-5 years have already been announced, and Belene
    is not expected to come on-line until 2016-2017.  According
    to XXXXXXXXXXXX, RWE realizes that working with Russian and
    Bulgarian companies in the energy sector is a "poisonous
    combination" for European investment.  Transparency is
    affecting financing.  RWE (and Electrabel) want European
    banks to finance their half of the project, hoping EU
    restrictions and western lending standards would help with
    transparency.  However, with the current global financial
    crisis, they believe finding a European bank will be
    difficult and may reluctantly have to turn to Russia for the
    money.

    ¶6.  (C)  The Bulgarians are also experiencing buyer's
    remorse.  Despite Russia's offer to extend a loan of about
    four billion Euros for the project, rumors abound that the
    Russians do not have the money to finance the project and the
    Bulgarians have been reluctant to take the money in any
    event, for fear of being seen as "too close" to the Russians.
     For their part, the Bulgarians at Belene are chafing at
    RWE,s close scrutiny of all decisions and complain that this
    approach is needlessly slowing the project.  Our contacts say
    that some Bulgarian officials are beginning to admit
    privately that in Belene, they have bought "a lemon."  NEC
    has sunk approximately 700 million euros into the project,
    while the Russians are not out of pocket and could walk away
    losing nothing.  Meanwhile, cost estimates for Belene
    continue to creep up, running as high as eight billion euros,
    double the original price.

    ------------------------------
    BELENE VS KOZLUDUY UNITS 7 & 8
    ------------------------------

    ¶7.  (C)  The rumors of trouble at Belene have resurrected the
    idea of a competing project at Bulgaria's only working
    nuclear power plant, Kozluduy. Bulgarian Minister of Energy
    and Economy Petar Dimitrov has been actively and publicly
    courting Westinghouse to invest in a project to build two new
    reactors at Kozluduy -- units 7 and 8.  Contacts say that the
    existing infrastructure, powerlines connecting Kozluduy to
    the national power grid, and a highly-skilled workforce close
    by at currently-operating Kozludy 5 and 6 give Kozluduy 7 and
    8 at least a one billion euro cost edge over Belene.
    Westinghouse officials are cautiously interested, but only if
    the Belene project is abandoned and Bulgarian government
    financial support is put into Kozluduy.  They want to avoid
    being used simply to create a new sense of urgency to
    jump-start Belene.

    ¶8.  (C)  Comment:  There is clearly something amiss at
    Belene.  Asked whether the project was in jeopardy, a senior
    WorleyParsons official privately told us that while the
    project was still likely to go forward, "countries walk away
    from deals like this all the time."  With elections on the
    horizon and 700 million euros in sunk costs, in addition to
    priceless political capital already invested, the government
    is unlikely to abandon the project any time soon.  But it may
    be on a very slow track.

    McEldowney

`