Bourgas-Alexandroupolis Pipeline - Bulgaria’s government announced June 1 that it has established a new state-owned company, Neftoprovod Bourgas-Alexandroupolis AD, which will represent Bulgaria in the international consortium in charge of implementing the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project. This is the most economically feasible project compared to all alternatives for transiting fuels via the Bosphorus. This is why its implementation should begin promptly and it should be completed in 2010, according to the shared view of all interested countries and companies, a press release by the Cabinet information office said. Last month, the government withdrew from a seven-company consortium that was to run the project, leading to uncertainty about how it intended to proceed.
The new company is a joint venture between Universal Terminal Burgas AD (with a 75 percents take) and natural gas provider Bulgargaz (with a 25 percent stake), both of which are also state controlled, the government said in a statement. The company will own a stake of at least 24.5 percent in the international company that will be established to construct the pipeline, and will have full voting rights on key issues. It will also participate in the negotiations on the involvement of Bulgarian companies in the design, construction and handling of the pipeline as well as in the transiting of oil via the Black Sea to end clients.

The Government backs the proposal that Universl Terminal Bourgas AD should construct the infrastructure, related to this and the AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) project, at the Bourgas Gulf. The company will lobby for equal terms of the usage of the infrastructure for the two projects. The pipeline is designed to ship 700,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bulgarian Black sea port of Burgas to Greece's Aegean port of Alexandroupolis, bypassing Turkey's busy Bosporus strait.

In April 2005, Bulgaria, Greece and Russia signed a EUR 522 million agreement for the construction of the pipeline. Funding for the project is to be provided by companies interested in running and exploiting the pipeline, and not by the three governments.