Nations sign oil pipeline deal

Bulgaria, Greece and Russia signed an agreement today for the construction of a long-awaited oil pipeline that will funnel Russian oil directly to south-eastern Europe – bypassing Turkey’s busy Bosporus strait.

Senior government officials of the three countries hailed the “positive economic impact of the deal on the wider region.”

No immediate details about the cost of the privately funded project that includes the construction of a 280-kilometre (175-mile) pipeline were announced, but experts had estimated it at between £500m (€757m) and £650m (€984m).

The pipeline will bring Russian oil from Bulgaria’s Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis in north-eastern Greece, bypassing the environmentally vulnerable Bosporus.

Russia is expected to have a 51% share in the deal, with Bulgaria and Greece splitting the remaining 49%.

Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Regional Development Kalin Rogachev said after the signing that “the project puts Bulgaria on the world energy map.”