Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline

Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline
Location of Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline
Location
Country	Bulgaria, Greece
General direction	north–south
From	Burgas (Bulgaria)
To	Alexandroupoli (Greece)
General information
Type	Petroleum
Partners	Transneft, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Technoexportstroy, Hellenic Petroleum, Prometheus Gas, Latsis Group, Government of Greece
Operator	Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V.
Expected	cancelled
Technical information
Length	279 km (173 mi)
Maximum discharge	35 million tons per year
Diameter	36 in (914 mm)
No. of pumping stations	3

The Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline was a proposed oil pipeline project for transportation of Russian and Caspian oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Greek Aegean port of Alexandroupoli. It was seen as an alternative route for Russian oil, bypassing the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. However, in December 2011 the project was suspended by the Bulgarian government due to environmental and supply concerns.

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 memorandum 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 relevant ministers of the three countries, in 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 the Netherlands on 6 February 2008.