Philippe Maystadt, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), has said during a visit in Greece that the Bank is ready to finance up to 50% of the project for building an oil pipeline for transit of Russian oil from the Bulgarian port of Bourgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis . His statement comes to confirm allegations from the Greek side that the pipeline is supported by EU institutions and bodies. However, the talks run by Bulgaria , Russia and Greece are only at political level and the countries have not reached an official agreement on the shareholder quotas yet. The project for building a 280km pipeline with an annual transport capacity of 35mn tonnes is valued at some EUR 740mn. Construction works are projected to continue 3 years and the first oil transit could take place in 2009 or 2010. This scenario however looks overoptimistic in view of the ongoing debates on the national shares, needs for setting up a trilateral investment company, and resolving land property issues that could prove quite difficult.