Russia and Bulgaria to discuss Burgas-Alexandrupolis oil pipeline project in April 2014

On April 7-8, 2014 the Russian-Bulgarian intergovernmental commission will discuss construction of the Burgas-Alexandrupois oil pipeline, ITAR-TACC reported quoting interview of the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

“Despite Bulgaria’s leaving the project, we believe that the agreement signed between the Russian, Bulgarian and Greek governments in 2007 is still effective. It is too early to speak about completion of the project, because unilateral stepping out is not envisaged by the agreement. I will chair the session of the commission on April 7-8 and this issue will be brought up there,” he added.

Novak added that the Vienna Convention on International Agreements of 1969 envisages certain conditions of stepping out – it is possible any time with consent of all its participants.

“We have not achieved consent yet. One cannot say that the project has completely sunk into oblivion, because one of the sides is not willing to be involved in its implementation,” Novak said.

Minister also added that Russian suppliers and European buyers are interested in the project. At present total volume of investments of all the interested sides reached 20 million Euro.

The agreement to build the Burgas-Alexandrupolis oil pipeline was signed between Russia, Greece and Bulgaria on March 15, 2007. It must stretch from the Bulgarian Burgas city on the Black Sea coast to Greek Alexandrupolis on the coast of the Aegean Sea. The pipeline was supposed to transport Russian oil to Alexandrupolis port through Bulgaria bypassing the Turkish Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. The carrying capacity of 285-km-long oil pipeline had to reach 35 million tons of oil a year with further increase up to 50 million tons. 

In December 2011 the Bulgarian government announced its decision to leave the project. The Bulgarian parliament decided with majority of votes to terminate the intergovernmental agreement on the oil pipeline construction.—0—