Russia will propose uniting the Burgas-Alexandrupolis and
Samsun-Jaykhan oil pipeline projects, after clarification of
Bulgaria’s position on the first of them, Russian Minister of Energy
Sergey Shmatko said, RIA Novosti reports.
He noted that implementation of the trilateral agreement between
Russia, Greece and Bulgaria on the Burgas-Alexandrupolis project has
almost halted, but so far they cannot unite the projects.
President of Transneft Nikolay Tokarev said earlier that the company
is negotiating with partners from Turkey, Italy and Greece on the
possibility of uniting the two projects and the creation of a
consortium to manage both pipelines.
Both pipelines were supposed to transport oil by land, by-passing the
congested Black Sea straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
The Samsun-Jaykhan pipeline has a capacity of 60-70 million tons of
oil per year, which when it is launched in 2011 will unite the Black
Sea and Mediterranean ports of Turkey. The project is being
implemented by the Turkish Calik Energy and Italian Eni companies. The
Russian companies Rosneft, Transneft and Sovkomflot decided to join
the project at the end of last year.
The Trans-balkan Burgas-Alexandrupolis pipeline has a capacity of 35
million tons of oil annually, which can be extended to 50 million
tons, connecting the Black Sea port of Burgas and the port of
Alexandropolis on the Aegean Sea. This project is being implemented by
Russia, Bulgaria and Greece. The Russian Energy Ministry had feared
that disagreements between Bulgaria and other participants in the
project could scuttle it. However, after a session of an
intergovernmental commission of Bulgaria and Russia, Bulgaria
expressed its interest in participating in the project.
