Pipeline deal to be signed ‘in days’

Greece, Russia and Bulgaria will sign a long-delayed oil pipeline agreement by late March during a ceremony in Athens expected to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said yesterday. «This is an historic agreement with significant benefits for all sides – for Russia, Bulgaria and Greece, for Burgas, Evros and Thrace, and for the major energy markets of the Mediterranean and Europe,» Sioufas said, adding that Putin «will quite likely attend the ceremony» which is due to take place before March 20. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev is also expected to attend the signing. Talks on the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which will bypass the congested Bosporus, have been going on for 14 years. But a warning last month by Putin that Russia would seek alternative supply routes if negotiations were not concluded soon prompted Athens and Sofia to pencil an intermediary deal with Moscow within a few days. Greece’s Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday discussed the project with Russia’s ambassador to Greece, Andrei Vdovin, who described the deal as «a great step forward in trilateral cooperation.» The 285-kilometer pipeline will carry Russian oil across Bulgaria and Greece to the Mediterranean Sea. The project is expected to cost at least -700 million and to transport 35-50 million tons of oil per year.