Construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline may be suspended if Bulgaria makes no decision on how to develop the project before autumn 2010, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Wednesday.
"We must understand where we should move. I am not saying we will stop it, but we will suspend it until we understand the position of the Bulgarian side and we will stop financing the project," Shmatko said when asked when Bulgaria will make a decision about the project.
Currently the project is almost suspended. Russia must make a decision before autumn 2010 because it has already allocated funding which has to be spent before autumn 2010, Shmatko said.
"Today we have to state that the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project is practically suspended," the minister said.
Russia's Energy Ministry in 2009 expressed concern that Bulgaria would rock the boat, but Bulgaria in December 2009 said after a meeting of the Russian-Bulgarian intergovernmental commission that it was interested in bilateral energy projects with Russia, including the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline.