By Kakia Papadopoulou
“Energy is the cornerstone of our strategic cooperation with Russia,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis told a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Fradcov on Thursday.
The Russian premier is in Athens for a two-day visit, Oct-5-6, a trip which practically aims at paving the way for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline construction deal later in the year.
The two parts expressed their strong political will to go through with the project.
“By the end of the year, we should prepare the bipartite agreement plan for the construction of the pipeline,” said Fradcov.
The leaders of Greece, Bulgaria and Russia agreed in September to build the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline which will carry Russian oil via Bulgaria and Greece avoiding its transit through Bosporus.
The pipeline will be built by a consortium named Transabalkan Pipeline, which involves Russian-British company TNK-BP, Russian firms Rosneft and Gazprom-Sibneft, Bulgaria’s Neftochem, and Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum and the Kopelouzos Group.
Local press report that the foreseen difficulties and disagreements over the size of the holdings of each constructor or the management rights of the project are expected to be gradually overcome.
Still, the Bulgarian side is seen a bit cautious ahead of the country’s presidential elections on October 25. But it is almost sure that the Bulgarians will not pull back.
Separately, Athens and Moscow agreed to extend their bilateral agreement for natural gas supply to Greece beyond 2016.
The tightening of the Greece-Russia economic ties came under the spotlight with Fradcov’s visit.
A tourist cooperation agreement was signed while Russia agreed to pay back to Greece an outstanding loan of EUR11 million.
Local media insist that Moscow will seek a goodwill gesture from Athens at a later stage, like a higher arm sales bill. Greek daily Kathimerini, citing sources, hinted that Mr Karamanlis avoided any sort of dodgy discussions with the Russian Premier and repeated “the very good cooperation of the two countries in the political and military field.”
Once the operations of the pipeline come into effect, oil will be transported from the Russia port of Novorosiysk to Burgas by tankers, offloaded to the pipeline and loaded at the Alexandroupolis terminal to other tankers. It has been estimated that this transit method will reduce the price of oil by $8 per barrel compared to its transit through Bosporus. Greece will benefit from transit fees.