Pipeliners

	Khristenko posing left of Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski.

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria, Greece and Russia signed a 522 million euro ($677 million) agreement Tuesday that opens the way for the construction of a privately funded trans-Balkan oil pipeline that will bypass Turkey's busy Bosporus strait.The deal was signed by the development ministers of Bulgaria and Greece, Valentin Tserovski and Dimitris Sioufas, and Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko. Under the long-delayed deal, a 285-kilometer pipeline will link Bulgaria's port of Burgas to Greece's Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea, a link that its sponsors hope will provide a faster, safer and cheaper alternative to carrying shiploads of oil through the Bosporus. Tserovski, however, indicated that original estimates to have the pipeline completed by 2007 were overly optimistic. "I'm convinced that the project can be fulfilled in the next three or four years," he told a news conference without elaboration. Initial talks on building the pipeline began in 1993 but were delayed because of disagreements over its cost, ownership and feasibility. The officials said the project would be financed by companies interested in running and exploiting the pipeline and not the three governments. TNK-BP is heading the project and other partners are to include Greece's Hellenic Petroleum, U.S. Cambridge Energy Research Associates, LUKoil and Rosneft, and Bulgaria's Technoexportstroy. Tserovski said that an "international project company" would soon be established to "offer the options for structuring and financing the project." Russia exports about a third of its oil production through the Black Sea and the pipeline will allow it to bypass the crowded and dangerous Bosporus in Turkey. The pipeline will have a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day. The planned annual capacity will be 15 million tons once the first stage of construction is finished, 24 million tons after completion of the second stage and 35 million tons on final completion with an option to expand it to 50 million tons.

# posted by Deval : 7:29 AM