Russia is withdrawing from the trans-Balkan Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, Russian business daily Vedomosti said on Wednesday, quoting sources close to the board of the project operator.
Russia's Transneft, Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, which jointly hold a 50 % stake in project operator Trans-Balkan Pipeline B. V., are expected to announce their withdrawal at a meeting of the supervisory council and shareholders in Rome on Thursday.
The 300-kilometer pipeline, planned to link the Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea, is designed to transport 35 million tons of oil a year, with a possible expansion to 50 million tons, to ease tanker traffic burden in the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.
The Bulgarian authorities have threatened to abandon the project over environmental risks. Around half of the pipeline is planned to run through Bulgarian territory. The complaints have delayed implementation of the project, originally planned for 2011.
The paper said the Russian companies are likely to focus on the development of the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline linking Turkey's Black Sea port of Samsun and the Mediterranean terminal in Ceyhan.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said in December that Russia and Turkey hoped to agree on investment in the pipeline project before the middle of March.
The Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline is designed to carry 60-70 million tons of oil per year. Transneft said the cost of oil supply via the pipeline may be three times higher than tanker transportation through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits.
MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti)
