Introduction

Plama Consortium Limited v. the Republic of Bulgaria (Plama) involves a refinery in Bulgaria. The refinery constituted the main asset of Nova Plama, an entity the claimant, Plama Consortium Limited (PCL), purchased in 1998.[1] PCL filed its arbitration request with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on 24 December 2002, claiming that the Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgaria or the respondent) had violated the Energy Charter Treaty (Treaty or ECT) and a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between Bulgaria and the Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus).[2] The ...