The Energy Ministers of Bulgaria and Greece Rossen Hristov and Kostas Skrekas opened the first meeting of the bilateral working group on the Alexandroupoli-Burgas oil pipeline.
The statement from the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said that the meeting, which took place in Athens, is in implementation of the memorandum of cooperation on the feasibility study of the Alexandroupoli-Burgas oil pipeline, signed by the two Ministers in February.
At the beginning of the meeting, the two Ministers noted the importance of the strategic project for the two countries and the energy security of the region.
A number of concrete steps were identified to achieve the objectives of the memorandum in the shortest possible time and tasks were assigned to the teams of the Bulgarian and Greek institutions, which will explore the possibilities of drawing up a project for the construction of the pipeline.
Alexandroupoli-Burgas oil pipeline will be 260 kilometers long, equally divided between Greece and Bulgaria, and offer an annual capacity of 10 million tons, down from an original plan of between 35 and 50 million tons.
A section of the Greek-Bulgarian oil pipeline is planned to run parallel to the IGB gas pipeline linking the two neighboring countries.
Works on the oil pipeline are expected to start within the next two years, while its completion is planned for three to four years from now, which is very quick for such projects.
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