By Kakia Papadopoulou
Athens and Sofia intent to speed up the process for the signing of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline deal by the end of the year, a commitment which was repeated after a meeting between the Greek Development Minister and his Bulgarian counterpart over the weekend.
Sioufas has visited Moscow and Sofia the past few days to pave the way for the signing before the end of year, as it was initially planned in the Athens top meeting between the Russian and Bulgaria President and the Greek premier last September.
Negotiations between the three countries overt he 280-kilometer Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline to the Aegean Sea have been ongoing for 14 years.
Meant as a way to avoid shipping through the busy Bosporus Strait, the project will transport Russian oil by tanker from the port of Novorossiysk on the Caspian Sea to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas.
It will then be carried by an overland pipeline to Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece.
The cost of the pipeline is seen at EUR700 million and it will transport about 35 million tons of Russian oil year.
Bulgaria abandoned its initial demand for the three countries to hold equal shares of 33% each in the project and agreed to let Russia hold a 51% stake, according to AFP citing Ovcharov.
But he added that Bulgaria will not accept less than a 24.5% stake.
Separately, Sioufas proposed the construction of a new electricity line of 400 KW between the two countries.