When Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov proudly presented the three energy accords signed during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Sofia in January 2008 as a "grand slam", criticism from their opponents was rife and bordering on vitriol.

But even the biggest critics of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, Belene nuclear power plant and South Stream gas pipeline probably did not expect the projects to face the amount of obstacles they have faced over the past 18 months, most importantly with securing financing amid a global credit crunch.

Neither project is completely off the drawing board so as to give the incoming new cabinet an entirely clean slate in the energy sector, but there are enough obstacles in the way of the implementation of the accords signed by Purvanov to excuse Bulgaria from actively pursuing them, should it choose to do so.

Boiko Borissov has so far avoided making unequivocal statements whether any of them would be shelved entirely, saying only that he wanted the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) to stop any ongoing negotiations on major investment projects.

In a letter to outgoing Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov, Borissov said that his party was "hearing worrying news about the activities of state companies, which do not take into account the financial and economic crisis, nor the state interests."

He identified Belene nuclear power plant and South Stream as two projects that should be put on hold until the new government takes office. BEH, which manages the bulk of state-owned assets in the energy sector, should also shelve plans to issue bonds worth 100 million euro, while state companies should stop signing new contracts.

Borissov also asked the Economy and Energy Ministry to freeze talks on a new gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom, the letter said.

The only exceptions to that requirement were the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on Nabucco gas pipeline, signed by outgoing Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in Ankara on July 13, and a link-up to the Greek gas grid. BEH signed the contract with Greece’s Depa and Italy’s Edison on the development of the link-up on July 14, a day before
a deadline for European Union funding for the project expired.

On July 12, Borissov told private broadcaster Nova Televiziya: "I talked to [BEH chief executive Galina] Tosheva and said that those contracts, and the one on Chiren gas storage to increase reserves from four billion cu m to 10 billion cu m [...] should go ahead because they can suffer no delay. From now on, any other contracts should not be signed."

Overhaul or not?
Borissov’s statements, part of a running war of words with the outgoing Cabinet, did not offer any clear insight into his plans for the energy sector. The clues so far, however, are that some sweeping changes would be avoided.

The new cabinet would still be interested in revising the current contract with Gazprom, but wanted to assess the situation before taking over, Borissov’s letter to Dimitrov said, implying that Borissov did not trust the outgoing Cabinet to pursue a deal in Bulgaria’s best interests.

The mayor of Sofia, who was expected to be handed a mandate to form the next government on July 16, said that he had no immediate plans to abolish BEH despite criticism of the company from potential ruling coalition partners. "Quite the opposite, I personally called [Tosheva] to tell her to work in peace while the new cabinet is formed," Borissov told Nova Televiziya.

Borissov has kept quiet on South Stream, a Gazprom-backed rival to EU’s Nabucco project, but reiterated support for the Belene power station, provided it could be built without Budget funds. Having secured permission from the European Union to build a new nuclear plant, it would be "criminal" not to use the opportunity, Borissov told Nova Televiziya.

The project would be given the go-ahead only once Borissov’s cabinet took office and assessed the Budget, he said. During the campaign, economy experts recruited by Borissov into his party, GERB, said repeatedly that undertakings on such a scale should not receive Budget guarantees.

The fate of Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, meant to bypass the traffic in the Bosphorus, is even murkier after BEH pulled out of the project, selling its stake to another Bulgarian state-owned company for 2.9 million leva, the amount it had spent on preliminary studies.

Just how long it would take Borissov’s cabinet to assess the state of the Budget finances remains unclear. According to an unnamed GERB source, quoted by Russian business daily Vedomosti, it could take as little as one week. Russian analysts and government officials quoted by the newspaper, however, were optimistic that the accords agreed by the outgoing cabinet would be allowed to stand and that GERB would make no attempts to change the policy course charted by their Socialist predecessors.