Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said on August 19 2009 that he would order an immediate check-up of the major fuel retailers operating on the market including Shell, OMV, Eko and Lukoil.

The announcement came at a news conference, in response to a question whether last week’s inspection of 16 companies was meant to serve the interests of Lukoil Bulgaria by clearing the small fry out of its way.

Teams from the finance and interior ministries checked fuel retailers after tip-offs about smuggling, but were tight-lipped about the names of the companies that came under scrutiny.

Commenting on a report by Skat TV channel, which is closely aligned to Volen Siderov's ultra-nationalist Ataka party, Borissov confirmed that he had spent a night at a hotel owned by Lukoil Bulgaria’s general manager, Valentin Zlatev, saying he has gone to Obzor every summer ever since he was a child as he is friends with fishermen.

Borissov said that former prime minister Sergei Stanishev was fretting over energy projects because he did not know a thing about them himself. "They are splashing out one, two and three billion as if they were tomatoes in a grocery," Borissov said, referring to the energy policy of the former government.

On August 17, Stanishev threw his weight behind Russia’s energy projects in Bulgaria, saying that those who opposed them were acting against the country’s national interests.

"It’s not the same if the Belene nuke project costs four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten billion euro. No one has announced the real cost of the project," Borissov said.

He said that there was no guarantee that Brussels would not one day order the reactors to be set up in the Belene project to be idled.

Source: Dnevnik.bg