Pipeliners

07.02.2007 - MosNews - After delaying the project for more than 14 years, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece are set to finally sign cooperation agreement on construction and operation of Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline on Wednesday, Feb. 7. Kalin Rogachev, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Andrei Dementiev, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy, and Nikos Stefanou, General Secretary of Greece’s Development Ministry will sign the trilateral agreement in the Bulgarian coastal town of Burgas. Initially developed in the mid 1990s, the strategic oil pipeline is projected to transport Russian crude oil along a land route that bypasses the traffic-congested Bosphorus and Hellespont straits. Its initial capacity is set at 35 million tons of oil per year, which could increase to 50 million tons per year. Three Russian energy companies will hold a cumulative stake of 51 percent in the operations of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. The remainder will be shared by Bulgaria and Greece. The pipeline will be 280 kilometers long. The Bulgarian section is 166 kilometers and will run via seven municipalities in south-eastern Bulgaria. The cost of the project is set at $700- 900 million. Concerns over the project’s viability, ownership share, a guaranteed supply of oil, as well as the financing parts have kept the project on the drawing boards for about a decade. The three-way venture is the first stage of a broader framework project on the transiting of crude oil. After running into numerous problems with its traditional transit allies, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and the Baltic States, Russia is striving to diversify its oil and gas export routes.