Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline
Encyclopedia
The Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline is an oil pipeline project for transportation of Russia
n and Caspian
oil from the Bulgaria
n Black Sea
port of Burgas
to the Greek
Aegean
port of Alexandroupoli
. It would be an alternative route for Russian oil, bypassing the Bosporus
and the Dardanelles
. However, in June 2010 it was announced that Bulgaria most likely will not proceed with the project due environmental and supply concerns.
of cooperation, signed by Greece and Russia.
In February 1998, a Greek consortium
for pipeline construction named Bapline was established, and in May 1998, a memorandum of creation of the Transbalkan Oil Pipeline Company was signed. In 2000, a technical specifications and an economic evaluation of the project were prepared by the German
company ILF.
A joint protocol for preparing the pipeline's construction was signed by the three countries in January 2005. The political memorandum between governments was signed on 12 April 2005. An inter-governmental agreement on the project was agreed on 7 February 2007, and it was signed on 15 March 2007 in Athens
, by the involved ministers of the three countries, under the presence of their leaders, Vladimir Putin
(Russian president), Sergey Stanishev
(Bulgarian prime-minister), and Kostas Karamanlis (prime-minister of Greece). The agreement establishing the international project company was signed in Moscow on 18 December 2007 and the company—Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V.—was incorporated in he Netherlands on 6 February 2008.
Construction of the pipeline was scheduled to start in October 2009, and was estimated to be completed by 2011. However, the project was delayed as the new Bulgarian government coming to power in July 2009 started to re-consider its participation in the project. On 19 October 2009, Italy, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement agreeing the participation of Russian oil companies in the competing Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project. On 11 June 2010, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boiko Borisov announced that Bulgaria will not participate in the project to due strong opposition of local population of Burgas. Some years later Hours later, it was said that the government would await an environmental impact assessment before making a final decision about termination of the project.
close to Burgas) and one at Alexandroupoli. The project includes reconstruction of Burgas and Alexandroupolis terminals, including oil tanks with a capacity of 600,000 tons in Burgas, and 1,200,000 tons in Alexandroupolis.
The pipeline is expected to cost up to €1 billion. The investment scheme is not agreed yet, and it is not decided from which sources the pipeline will be filled.
, Rosneft
and Gazprom Neft
. Bulgarian Burgas–Alexandroupolis Project Company-BG, a subsidiary of Technoexportstroy, owns 24.5% of shares. Greece consortium HELPE S.A. - THRAKI S.A., a joint venture between Hellenic Petroleum
and Thraki, which is owned by Prometheus Gas
and the Latsis Group, owns 23.5%, while the Government of Greece has 1%.
There are speculations that the part of Bulgarian and Hellenic stakes could be sold to other oil companies as Chevron
, TNK-BP
and KazMunayGas
. Also Andrei Dementyev, a deputy industry and energy minister of Russia, has proposed that Kazakhstan
i KazMunayGas and other shareholders of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium
could be get a stake in the pipeline project. Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov has said that Kazakhstan wants to buy a stake in the pipeline consortium.
The ownership of the Burgas oil terminal remains unclear. Bulgarian opposition has demanded to scrap the deal if Russian companies are granted control over the terminal.
from Burgas to Vlorë
, Pan-European Pipeline
from Constanţa
to Trieste
, Odessa-Brody-Plotsk pipeline
, Kiykoy-Ibrice pipeline, and Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline — all aimed to transport oil from the Black Sea bypassing Turkish straits. The project of the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline is described as one of the shortest pipeline through a plain terrain and therefore to be one of the cheapest and cost effective. The critics of the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline project have raised environmental concerns because of oil tankers traffic in the Aegean Sea, which contains numerous submerged rocks and island populations dependent on tourism and fishing. It has been mentioned that a possible oil spill in the Aegean would be devastating for Greece's tourism industry. The residents of Burgas and Sozopol
in Bulgaria have voted against in the pipeline in local referendums in the spring of 2008.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Caspian
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
oil from the Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
port of Burgas
Burgas
-History:During the rule of the Ancient Romans, near Burgas, Debeltum was established as a military colony for veterans by Vespasian. In the Middle Ages, a small fortress called Pyrgos was erected where Burgas is today and was most probably used as a watchtower...
to the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
port of Alexandroupoli
Alexandroupoli
Alexandroupoli , is a city of Greece and the capital of the Evros peripheral unit in Thrace. Named after King Alexander, it is an important port and commercial center of northeastern Greece.-Name:...
. It would be an alternative route for Russian oil, bypassing the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...
and the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
. However, in June 2010 it was announced that Bulgaria most likely will not proceed with the project due environmental and supply concerns.
History
The pipeline project was proposed in 1993–1994 by several Russian and Greek companies. In 1994, for construction of the pipeline Greece and Bulgaria signed a bilateral agreement, followed by a memorandumMemorandum
A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...
of cooperation, signed by Greece and Russia.
In February 1998, a Greek consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
for pipeline construction named Bapline was established, and in May 1998, a memorandum of creation of the Transbalkan Oil Pipeline Company was signed. In 2000, a technical specifications and an economic evaluation of the project were prepared by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
company ILF.
A joint protocol for preparing the pipeline's construction was signed by the three countries in January 2005. The political memorandum between governments was signed on 12 April 2005. An inter-governmental agreement on the project was agreed on 7 February 2007, and it was signed on 15 March 2007 in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, by the involved ministers of the three countries, under the presence of their leaders, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
(Russian president), Sergey Stanishev
Sergey Stanishev
Sergei Dmitrievich Stanishev is a Bulgarian politician who was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2005 to 2009; currently he is Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Interim President of the Party of European Socialists...
(Bulgarian prime-minister), and Kostas Karamanlis (prime-minister of Greece). The agreement establishing the international project company was signed in Moscow on 18 December 2007 and the company—Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V.—was incorporated in he Netherlands on 6 February 2008.
Construction of the pipeline was scheduled to start in October 2009, and was estimated to be completed by 2011. However, the project was delayed as the new Bulgarian government coming to power in July 2009 started to re-consider its participation in the project. On 19 October 2009, Italy, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement agreeing the participation of Russian oil companies in the competing Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline project. On 11 June 2010, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boiko Borisov announced that Bulgaria will not participate in the project to due strong opposition of local population of Burgas. Some years later Hours later, it was said that the government would await an environmental impact assessment before making a final decision about termination of the project.
Technical features and financing
The main pipeline with a diameter of 36 inches (914.4 mm) will be 279 kilometres (173 mi) long, and it would transport 15-23 million tons of oil per year during the first phase, as well as 35 million during the second. The pipeline would have three oil refilling stations, two of which in Bulgaria (the first one at NeftochimLUKOIL Neftochim Burgas
LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas , based in Burgas, Bulgaria, is the largest oil refinery in Southeastern Europe and the largest industrial enterprise in Bulgaria. Owned by Russian oil giant LUKOIL, the refinery has the biggest contribution among the privately owned enterprises to the country's GDP and to...
close to Burgas) and one at Alexandroupoli. The project includes reconstruction of Burgas and Alexandroupolis terminals, including oil tanks with a capacity of 600,000 tons in Burgas, and 1,200,000 tons in Alexandroupolis.
The pipeline is expected to cost up to €1 billion. The investment scheme is not agreed yet, and it is not decided from which sources the pipeline will be filled.
International project company
The pipeline will be constructed and owned by the Dutch-registered Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V. In this company, a stake of 51% of shares belongs to the Burgas–Alexandroupolis Pipeline Consortium, a joint venture of Russian TransneftTransneft
Transneft is a Russian state-owned business responsible for the national oil pipelines. It was founded in 1993 and owns the largest oil pipeline system in the world, with a total network length of almost...
, Rosneft
Rosneft
Rosneft is an integrated oil company majority owned by the Government of Russia. Rosneft is headquartered in Moscow’s Balchug district near the Kremlin, across the Moskva river...
and Gazprom Neft
Gazprom Neft
Gazprom Neft is the fifth largest oil producing and refining company in Russia. It's the oil arm of Gazprom, which owns 80% of Gazprom Neft's shares....
. Bulgarian Burgas–Alexandroupolis Project Company-BG, a subsidiary of Technoexportstroy, owns 24.5% of shares. Greece consortium HELPE S.A. - THRAKI S.A., a joint venture between Hellenic Petroleum
Hellenic Petroleum
Hellenic Petroleum S.A. is the largest oil refining company in Greece and with its roots dating to 1958 with the establishment of the first oil refinery in Greece ....
and Thraki, which is owned by Prometheus Gas
Prometheus Gas
Prometheus Gas S.A. is a Greek – Russian joint company, established in 1991 in Athens. The Russian natural gas export company Gazprom Export, on behalf of Gazprom, holds the 50% of the shares. Mr. Dimitrios Ch...
and the Latsis Group, owns 23.5%, while the Government of Greece has 1%.
There are speculations that the part of Bulgarian and Hellenic stakes could be sold to other oil companies as Chevron
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining,...
, TNK-BP
TNK-BP
TNK-BP is a major vertically integrated Russian oil company. It is Russia's third largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. TNK-BP is Russia's third largest oil company in terms of reserves and crude oil production...
and KazMunayGas
KazMunayGas
KazMunayGas is the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan. It was founded in 2002 by merging Kazakhoil and Oil and Gas Transportation.-Subsidiaries:Main subsidiaries of KazMunayGas are:...
. Also Andrei Dementyev, a deputy industry and energy minister of Russia, has proposed that Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
i KazMunayGas and other shareholders of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium
Caspian Pipeline Consortium
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is a consortium and a pipeline to transport Caspian oil from Tengiz field to the Novorossiysk-2 Marine Terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast. It is also a major export route for oil from the Kashagan and Karachaganak fields...
could be get a stake in the pipeline project. Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov has said that Kazakhstan wants to buy a stake in the pipeline consortium.
The ownership of the Burgas oil terminal remains unclear. Bulgarian opposition has demanded to scrap the deal if Russian companies are granted control over the terminal.
Controversy
There are several competitive pipeline projects, such as the AMBO pipelineAMBO pipeline
AMBO pipeline is a planned oil pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas via the Republic of Macedonia to the Albanian Adriatic port of Vlorë.-History:The pipeline was proposed already in 1993...
from Burgas to Vlorë
Vlorë
Vlorë is one of the biggest towns and the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 . It is the city where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28, 1912...
, Pan-European Pipeline
Pan-European Pipeline
The Pan-European Oil Pipeline is a proposed oil pipeline from Constanţa in Romania via Serbia and Croatia to Rijeka and from there through Slovenia to Trieste in Italy. The aim of the pipeline is to bypass Turkish straits in the transportation of Russian and Caspian oil to Central Europe...
from Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, Odessa-Brody-Plotsk pipeline
Odessa-Brody pipeline
The Odessa–Brody pipeline is a crude oil pipeline between the Ukrainian cities Odessa at the Black Sea, and Brody near the Ukrainian-Polish border. There are plans to expand the pipeline to Płock, and furthermore to Gdańsk in Poland...
, Kiykoy-Ibrice pipeline, and Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline — all aimed to transport oil from the Black Sea bypassing Turkish straits. The project of the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline is described as one of the shortest pipeline through a plain terrain and therefore to be one of the cheapest and cost effective. The critics of the Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline project have raised environmental concerns because of oil tankers traffic in the Aegean Sea, which contains numerous submerged rocks and island populations dependent on tourism and fishing. It has been mentioned that a possible oil spill in the Aegean would be devastating for Greece's tourism industry. The residents of Burgas and Sozopol
Sozopol
Sozopol is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival that is named after one of the town's ancient names.The busiest times of the year...
in Bulgaria have voted against in the pipeline in local referendums in the spring of 2008.
See also
- AMBO pipelineAMBO pipelineAMBO pipeline is a planned oil pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas via the Republic of Macedonia to the Albanian Adriatic port of Vlorë.-History:The pipeline was proposed already in 1993...
- Pan-European PipelinePan-European PipelineThe Pan-European Oil Pipeline is a proposed oil pipeline from Constanţa in Romania via Serbia and Croatia to Rijeka and from there through Slovenia to Trieste in Italy. The aim of the pipeline is to bypass Turkish straits in the transportation of Russian and Caspian oil to Central Europe...
- Odessa–Brody pipeline
- Samsun–Ceyhan pipeline
- Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline
- Caspian Pipeline ConsortiumCaspian Pipeline ConsortiumThe Caspian Pipeline Consortium is a consortium and a pipeline to transport Caspian oil from Tengiz field to the Novorossiysk-2 Marine Terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast. It is also a major export route for oil from the Kashagan and Karachaganak fields...
- South StreamSouth StreamSouth Stream is a proposed gas pipeline to transport Russian natural gas to the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Greece, Italy and Austria. The project is seen as rival to the planned Nabucco pipeline...