Prime Minister Boiko Borissov's government was looking for more private investors for the planned nuclear power plant at Belene, but the project has already cost about one billion leva, of which one fifth were spent on consultancy fees, two Cabinet ministers said on September 18.

Speaking to Bulgarian National Television, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said that for the past month, the Cabinet has been negotiating the sale of part of its stake, drawing some interest from investors.

Bulgarian state-owned power grid operator NEK holds the majority stake of 51 per cent. After the sale, Bulgaria would be left with between 20 and 30 per cent, which would be enough for a blocking stake, Dyankov said.

Asked to comment the statement by Russian ambassador in Sofia, Yuri Isakov, who said in a recent interview that Bulgaria would forego revenues of 100 billion euro over the next 60 years if it rejected the Belene project, Dyankov said that Bulgaria would lose nothing. "So far, we lost almost a billion [leva] from a bad price and bad practices," Dyankov said.

Economy Minister Traicho Traikov, during question time in Parliament, said that about 20 per cent of the costs so far went to consultants.

Worley Parsons Europe Energy Services, the owner's engineer on the project, received 92 million euro and $5.2 million in fees as of September 7, Traikov said. Financial and legal adviser Deloitte Central Europe was paid 2.7 million euro under two contracts and BNP Paribas, picked to structure finance for the construction, was paid 417 700 euro.