The energy ministers of Bulgaria and Russia have agreed that the two countries need to find a mutually acceptable solution for the future use of the equipment already produced for the abandoned Belene nuclear power plant project.

Bulgaria’s Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova and her Russian counterpart Alexander Novak discussed over the phone the arbitration court ruling in the commercial dispute between Bulgarian state-owned power utility NEK and Russia’s Atomstroyexport, the Energy Ministry in Sofia said in a statement on Thursday.

The ruling requires NEK to pay EUR 550 M to Atomstroyexport as compensation for the equipment for Belene already manufactured by the Russian company.

Bulgaria cancelled its Belene project, on the Danube river, in 2012.

Following the court ruling, the Bulgarian government has said it is looking into options to sell the equipment to a third country. Meanwhile, Rosatom, the parent company of Atomstroyexport, has said that it is ready to consider the construction of new nuclear power plants in Bulgaria despite the demise of the Belene project.

Temenuzhka Petkova also informed Alexander Novak on Thursday about the state of play in the discussions with the European Commission about Bulgaria’s plans to build a gas hub on its territory.

“We look at Russia as one of the potential sources of natural gas supplies [to the hub]," Petkova told Novak, according to the statement.

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