Burgas – Alexandroupolis oil pipeline memorandum of cooperation inked

The first step for the construction of the oil transport pipeline from Alexandroupolis to Burgas, Bulgaria is taking place today in Athens.

In the framework of the visit of the President of Bulgaria Roumen Radev to Athens and his meeting with the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of the Republic Aikaterini Sakellaropoulou a memorandum of cooperation for the oil pipeline is expected to be signed. Information indicates that a corresponding agreement will also be signed for storage of natural gas quantities.

The oil pipeline

The cooperation memorandum for the oil pipeline is expected to be signed by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, and his counterpart from Bulgaria, Rosen Christov. The memorandum paves the way for investigating the possibility of building the oil pipeline.

The Bulgarians, who need crude oil to cover their needs, are very keen on the project. The neighboring country had cut off imports of Russian crude before the embargo, while any cargo crossing the Bosphorus is subject to steep fees.

The political leadership of the neighboring country has been stressing the necessity of building the project at every opportunity in recent months.

The pipeline, as businessman Dimitris Kopelouzos had recently made known – his group is expected to be one of the project’s implementers – will transport quantities of 10 million tons of oil. The crude will arrive by tankers at the port of Alexandroupolis and then be transported through the pipeline to the Bulgarian port of Burgas. The country’s refinery is also located there.

From Burgas, the oil will be transported by tanker trucks to other Eastern European countries.

The pipeline, if built, will be 260 km long and 10 inches in diameter.

Revival

The oil pipeline project is the revival of the old “Bourgas-Alexandroupolis” investment project promoted 16 years ago by the governments of Greece, Bulgaria and Russia. At that time, the flow of Russian oil from Burgas to Alexandroupolis was foreseen for the purpose of transporting it by sea to countries in the SE Mediterranean.

The project of the plan at the time provided for the construction of a pipeline with a diameter of 24 inches and the possibility of transporting 30-35 million tons of crude oil.

However, the project never went ahead despite the signing of interstate agreements.

Natural gas storage

According to information, a cooperation memorandum for the storage of quantities of natural gas is expected to be signed at the Maximos Palace.

It has not been clarified whether these will cover the needs of Greece or Bulgaria.