Predictably, despite the long and varied agenda of the meeting of the Russian-Bulgarian inter-government committee on economic issues on December 10 and 11, the joint energy projects between the two countries grabbed the limelight before and after the event.

Russia’s delegation was headed by energy minister Sergey Shmatko in what was his second visit to Sofia in the three months since the chilly reception given by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borissov over plans to review Bulgaria’s commitments to three major projects.

Like his earlier trip in late September, Shmatko’s second visit to Sofia yielded little in the way of tangible progress on the slew of energy issues that over the past year have become the focus of Bulgarian-Russian bilateral relations.

On the Belene nuclear power plant, for which Bulgaria has signed a four billion euro contract with Russia’s Atomstroyexport to build two 1000MW reactors, the two sides were engaged in "constructive dialogue," Shmatko told reporters at the end of the two-day meeting.

Russian companies remain interested in acquiring a stake in the power plant and reportedly have offered to buy out the Bulgarian state altogether, according to Russian media, but the offer was rejected, website mediapool.bg said, quoting unnamed Bulgarian officials that attended the committee meeting.

Despite this setback, Shmatko, the former chief executive of Atomstroyexport, was bullish on Belene’s success, saying: "I think RWE is already regretting and will regret that it pulled out." German utility RWE, picked in 2008 to buy 49 per cent in the company that would build and operate Belene, pulled out of the project in October 2009 before signing a shareholder agreement.

Bulgaria was in no rush to sign up investors for the future plant, instead focusing on reassessing the project, Bulgarian Economy Minister Traicho Traikov said. The Cabinet will call a tender before the end of December to pick a consultant that will be given that job.

"The way that the project was structured until this summer, there was no way for it to happen, because that meant that by July 31, Bulgaria had to put on the table or prove that it could allocate five billion euro," Traikov told Bulgarian National Television on December 11.

Instead, the Cabinet now sought to shift risk to private investors, while keeping a minority stake reported to be at about 20 per cent, but without making long-term commitments, he said.

According to Shmatko, as quoted by Bulgarian media, the Russian side understood Sofia’s reasoning and was encouraged by the willingness not to scrap the project altogether. Russian firms would continue to build the equipment already ordered for Belene, he said.

The other joint project facing a significant delay is the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, where Bulgaria has asked for a new environmental impact assessment, expected to take up to 18 months to carry out.

Sofia is concerned that the current plan to pump the oil into the pipeline out at sea was too risky for the lucrative tourism business in the area. Traikov said that a negative assessment would preclude Bulgaria from participating in the project. The alternative proposal to pump the oil from a land terminal could double the cost of the pipeline, estimated at up to $1.5 billion.

On South Stream, the planned 63 billion cu m a year gas pipeline, Bulgaria would support efforts to have it declared a strategic project by the European Union, Traikov said, but made no further commitments, saying that the issue was now one for the participating companies to negotiate. The EU sees South Stream’s rival project, Nabucco, as strategic and has given no indication of changing its stance on South Stream.

Shmatko made no significant headway with the projects he championed in Sofia, but neither did Bulgaria on the issue of having gas delivered directly by Gazprom. Asked to comment on the issue, Shmatko said that the three companies with whom Bulgaria had contracts were not just mere subsidiaries, but invested in the development of the gas grid. He said Gazprom had to take into account Bulgaria’s position on the issue, but made no commitments on the matter.