Oil pipeline takes off

Bulgaria and Greece yesterday announced they had resolved a seven-year wrangle that has delayed construction of a 256km (159-mile) underground pipeline planned to carry Russian oil from the Black Sea port of Bourgas to Alexandroupolis on the northern Aegean coast. Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Konstantin Paskalev and visiting Greek Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos said the two sides had reached an agreement in Sofia on three equal stakes in a company to be set up jointly with Russia. The 700-million-euro project has been in deadlock because Bulgaria and Greece could not agree over their stakes in the future consortium. Tsochadzopoulos said the three countries were expected to sign a memorandum for speeding up the project and creating a company to manage it by early April. The project envisages carrying 35 million tons of crude per year (700,000 barrels per day) from the Russian port of Novorossiisk by tanker to Bourgas. Last month, Bulgaria announced it had received Russia’s backing on its demand for equal equity in the project of 33.3 percent for each country. Paskalev said that by the beginning of construction, the three countries would sell their full stakes or part of the stakes in the joint company to private firms. The two sides also announced that they planned to boost cooperation in the energy sector, the first step of which would be the restructuring of the electric energy transportation network in the border region with the participation of neighboring Turkey. Tsochadzopoulos also discussed the issues involved with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Alternate Foreign Minister Tassos Yiannitsis, who accompanied Tsochadzopoulos to Sofia, said, during a speech on EU enlargement, that the Greek EU presidency in the first half of 2003 will launch the new timetable on Bulgaria’s entry, to be approved by the summit in Copenhagen in December. Greece has pledged 54 million euros in aid to Bulgaria in the framework of a Balkan reconstruction program. Natural gas While on a visit to the international tourism exposition ITB 2002 in Berlin on Saturday, Tsochadzopoulos said excellent prospects for international cooperation in the energy industry could turn Greece into an important link in the transportation of natural gas from the Caspian Sea region to western Europe. «Greece will provide an additional – as well as alternative – possibility for supplying EU countries, given that the pipeline from the Greek-Turkish border will continue along the Egnatia Highway in northern Greece and then be submerged across the strait to Italy and the other member states,» he told a press briefing. The pipeline will carry natural gas from Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan through Turkey, supplementing the Siberian gas which Russia now channels to western Europe and helping the EU’s planned introduction of gas for industrial uses as of 2004, Tsochadzopoulos explained. Prime Minister Costas Simitis announced a tentative agreement with Turkey at the EU summit in Barcelona over the weekend to build the pipeline and Tsochadzopoulos is due to visit Ankara on March 28 and 29. Further talks are expected in Iran in April. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said in Athens in January that his country would like to use Turkey as a central point of distribution of natural gas to Greece and the rest of Europe. During a briefing of Greek European Parliament deputies in Athens on Friday, Tsochadzopoulos said the government was planning full liberalization of the energy market in order to ensure adequate supplies of cheap and clean energy throughout the country, and turn it into a crossroads in energy transportation to Europe. He announced that after recommendations by the Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE), the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) had finalized new, cheaper rates for the transportation of natural gas within Greece, to apply from 2003. Another plan envisages the launching of an energy futures market in the production and trading of power. Tsochadzopoulos said the present decade will see Greece making great strides in economic and social development and in environmental protection. Tourism According to a press release yesterday, Tsochadzopoulos told contacts in Berlin on Saturday that Greek tourism operators will not accept a reduction in prices, under pressure from the current international recession in the industry. «On the contrary, the minister gave instructions for a qualitative upgrade of services by tourism operators so that prices are maintained at satisfactory levels,» said the press release. Tsochadzopoulos also stressed the need for close cooperation with German tour operators active in Greece with a view to improving communication policies and producing joint advertising programs. He said prospects for the influx of German tourists to Greece this year looked positive. During the press briefing at ITB 2002, Tsochadzopoulos said Greece’s three-year tourism development plan also involved consultation with the other EU partners for the formulation of a common policy in the industry, and that the Greek EU presidency in the first half of 2003 will work in that direction.