AMBO pipeline

A recently set up Greek-Bulgarian working group met in Athens last Friday to discuss reviving the Alexandroupoli-Burgas oil pipeline project.

The meeting was attended by Greek Environment and Energy Ministry Minister Kostas Skrekas and his Bulgarian counterpart Rossen Hristov, who agreed that the pipeline is of great geostrategic importance for both countries.

Bulgaria is looking to revive a trans-Balkan oil pipeline project to secure non-Russian crude oil supplies for its only oil refinery on the Black Sea, controlled by Russia's Lukoil, President Rumen Radev said on Tuesday.

The construction of an oil pipeline linking Alexandroupoli to Burgas in Bulgaria is back on the table, with the difference now that the new plans provide for the transport of oil from the south (Alexandroupoli) to the north (Burgas) and from there to the markets of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Albania's Ministry of Energy on Friday in Tirana unveiled a preliminary feasibility study for a proposed Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline, hoping the EU may fund construction of the section of the pipeline between Albania and Montenegro.

The Bulgarian government has issued new bonds boosting the capital of the project company managing the Burgas-Alexandroupoli oil pipeline, a ditched project between Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia.

Burgas-Alexandroupoli was renounced under a 2010 proposal by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's first cabinet in 2010, with Parliament approving the freeze at the end of 2011..

Macedonia will join the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project when the European Commission and Russia reach agreement on the scheme, according to Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

In an interview for local news portal Pres 24 he says that Macedonia is a country that makes decisions of strategic importance on the basis of its Euro-Atlantic orientation.

Bulgaria and Greece will connect by rail the Greek ports of Kavala and Alexandroupoli on the Aegean Sea, the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna, and Port Ruse on the Danube River.

The implementation of the project will be launched very soon, with the concrete date to be announced by the Greek Embassy in Sofia.