The official signing of the much-touted and long-delayed Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline got its place in the sun finally, ending a 14-year talks and negotiations period, largely thanks to the personal stamina of the Russian president Vladimir Putin himself.
Russia has been firmed on its commitment for the construction of the pipeline and Mr Putin expressed the wish the project to go through as soon as possible without failing to mention the consecutive delays of it.
“In Russia today, we are building a pipeline in Siberia to export oil to China and we managed to construct 600 kilometers under adverse climatic conditions in six months,” president Putin characteristically said. “And here after 14 years of talks, not even one kilometer of pipeline has been constructed.”
Energy supply security to the big markets and environmental safety, were also the two key words in Mr Putin’s speech on the signing ceremony.
Today the Greek Premier Costas Karamanlis, the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Bulgarian Premier Sergei Stanishev signed the agreement for the 280-kilometer pipeline, linking the Bulgarian port of Burgas and the northern port of Alexandroupolis. The around $1 billion pipeline is expected to be finished by the end of 2009.
The pipeline will carry Russian oil through Bulgaria and Greece avoiding transit through the Bosporus busy straits.
As it was expected, Mr Putin touched base on a wider energy package, in other words selling natural gas to the under construction Greece –Italy natural gas pipeline.
Mr Karamanlis referred to the benefits of Greece from the project, namely the creation of new jobs and new prospects for the country under the lens of an energy hub for the region.
The pipeline’s capacity will be 35 million tons of crude oil annually, which can be potentially increased to 50 million tons.
Greece and Bulgaria will largely benefit from transit fees.
Pipeline is expected to upgrade Greece’s and Bulgaria’s geopolitical position since a major oil route to Western Europe will pass through the Greek and Bulgarian soil.