Pipeliners

07 November 2006 - Today.Az - The process for the construction of the Russian-supported Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, an alternative to Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, has been intensified. Bulgarian Energy Minister Ovcharov left for Sofia to discuss the issue with Greek Development Minister Sioufas, APA reports. The sides are very close to signing an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. Negotiations between the three countries-Russia, Greece and Bulgaria- over the 280-kilometer Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline to the Aegean Sea have been ongoing for 14 years. Meant as a way to avoid shipping through the busy Bosporus Strait, the project will transport Russian oil by tanker from the port of Novorossiysk on the Caspian Sea to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas. It will then be carried by an overland pipeline to Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece. The three countries will hold equal shares of the consortium, APA reports.