On November 26, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) president Jean Lemierre signed a 54 million euro loan for the hydro-power project company Vez Svoge, Intellinews reported.

Majority owner of Vez Svoge wth 90 per cent, was Petrolvilla Bulgaria, owned by Italy's Petrolvilla&Borolotti. The remaining 10 per cent were owned by the municipality of Svoge.

The company would build nine hydro-power plants with a total capacity of 25.7MW along a 33 km stretch of the middle section of the river Iskar, about 40 km north of Sofia.

The credit would be structured in two loans; A-loan of up to 34 million euro financed by the EBRD and a B-loan of up to 20 million euro from an international bank. The total investment was estimated to be worth 73 million euro, Intellinews said.

The first plant was expected to start working by March 2008, with the second one following three years later.

The deal included a clause under which estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions worth more than 336 000 tons of CO2 would be purchased by the EBRD from VEZ.