Bulgaria's Gorna Arda hydro-power complex will likely be built under a concession arrangement that will be contested by all interested outfits on an equal footing with national power grid operator NEK, economy minister Petar Dimitrov said on August 26.

The project could be back on the agenda already in autumn, when the Government expects to settle the outstanding claims of its Turkish partner in the undertaking. Last year, CCG Insaat Sanayi Yatirim Ve Turiz, the legal successor to Celyan, the original Turkish participant in the project, filed a 75 million euro claim against state-run grid operator NEK at the international court of arbitration in Paris.

In the 1990s, NEK and Ceylan founded Hydro Energy Company Gorna Arda (HEK Gorna Arda) within the framework of an intergovernmental agreement. NEK owns 69.9 per cent of the joint venture.

In exchange for the electricity supplies, Turkish companies were supposed to participate in a number of joint ventures, like HEK Gorna Arda, in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

The Gorna Arda project is an important part of Bulgaria's energy strategy as it is fully based on the use of renewable resources, Dimitrov told Dnevnik.

So far, neither Bulgaria nor the Turkish partner plan to cash in their respective stakes in the project. "It is important for us to reach an agreement with the Turkish partner and then things will get into gear,” Dimitrov said.

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