Russia
's oil company Transneft has
expressed dismay atthe decision of the Bulgarian government to kill the
project for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, according to its
representatives.
"Transneft
has not been notified by the Bulgarian authorities that they are leaving the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil
pipeline project," said Igor Demin, a representative of Transenft, told
ITAR-TASS Wednesday, hours after Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, announced
that the Borisov Cabinet wanted to do away with the controversial pipeline
project.
Demin has
reminded that in November
Bulgaria
's Environment Ministry technically
approved the Environmental Impact Assessmentsubmitted byTrans-Balkan
Pipeline, the Bulgarian-Greek-Russian company set up to construct and run the
oil pipe from the
Black Sea
to the
Mediterranean
.
The
approval was granted after the Environment Ministry in
Sofia
returned the EIA paperwork for
corrections by TBP several times.
Bulgaria
's Finance Minister Djankov
announced earlier that the Borisov Cabinet will send formal letters to
Russia
and
Greece
offering them to terminate by
mutual consent the agreement for the construction of the oil pipeline.
If either
Russia
, or
Greece
– or both, as it might be
likely – fail to agree,
Bulgaria
will be entitled to walk away from
the project after a 12-month period, as stipulated by the agreement clauses.
The
Bulgarian government decided on Wednesday to scrap the project for theoil
pipeline, which was to take Russian crude through its territory to
Greece
.
According
to the cabinet in
Sofia
the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil
pipeline – one of the three major Bulgarian-Russian energy projects – is not
economically viable.