Bulgaria and Russia reached an agreement on the continuation of their co-operation on the three massive energy projects – the gas pipe “South stream”, the nuclear power plant “Belene” and the oil pipeline “Burgas – Alexandroupolis”.

Despite the agreement, the Bulgarian side still wants additional verification on the financial expenses until the final decision is made.

The Russian minister of energy Sergei Shmatko expressed his satisfaction from the decision of the Bulgarian government to continue their co-operation on the major energy projects.

“We discussed if the projects should be completed, how to reach maximum efficiency and mutual benefits”, said Shmatko after his meeting with his Bulgarian colleague Traicho Traikov and the prime minister Boiko Borisov.

During the discussion, Shmatko assured the Bulgarian side that Russia is open to pragmatic dialogue on all three energy projects.

“I’m happy that Russia understands our concern about the energy projects, especially about the oil pipeline “Burgas – Alexandroupolis”. They tolerate our demands for detailed information on the stages of the project and it’s financing,” said the Bulgarian prime minister Borisov in front of the media last night.

Along with the minister of economics, energy and tourism Traicho Traikov and his Russian colleague Sergei Shmatko, he informed the media about the results of the two-way discussions on the energy projects.

According to him the main conclusion from the meetings is that the two projects – “Nabuko” and “South stream” aren’t competing among themselves, and on the contrary – Bulgaria is participating equally in both.

Some concrete measures have to be taken to reach the maximum efficiency of “South stream”.

Minister Traikov announced that both sides will form work groups. One will work on the contract for the project, while the other will work on the pre-project research auction.