The execution of the project Burgas - Alexandrοupolis is being postponed by 1 year. The beginning of the construction of the petrol pipe Burgas - Alexandrοupolis is planned for the middle of 2010, while its exploitation - for 2012.
This was announced by a representative of "Transneft", cited by Interfax. According to him, the new deadlines mean that the execution of the project is being postponed by 1 year. Burgas - Alexandrοupolis is not the only project, whose deadline is extended, the Director of Department of Due Diligence Alexander Stock commented, cited by Gazeta.ru. According to him, this is happening to all big infrastructure projects and is connected to the financial crisis as well as the un-appreciation of the complexity of construction on the part of the companies-operators.
In the case of Burgas-Alexandrοupolis at first the reasons were in the differences among the countries participants in the international project and in the project company Trans Balkan Pipeline. The second reason for the extension of the deadlines is the delay of the exploitation of the oil-field in Kazakhstan (Kashagan).This pipe was planned namely for Kazakhstan oil, Stock says.
Analyzers point out that Burgas - Alexandrοupolis definitely is one of the geopolitical interests of Russia, despite that at the moment it is not a priority.