"There will be no delays in the construction of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline," Nikolai Tokarev, president of Russia's Transneft, told Bourgas Regional Governor Lyubomir Panteleev when the two conferred in Bourgas on Wednesday, the Regional Administration said.

The company expects the pipeline to go under construction in the second half of 2010, using the latest and safest technology available, posing a minimum risk, Tokarev specified.

Transneft will do everything possible for arranging a broad public awareness company. The company officials undertook to implement an accompanying social program to meet the needs of Bourgas residents.

The Bourgas-Alexandroupolis project was initiated in 1994 by Greek and Russian companies as an alternative for moving Russian and Caspian oil to Western Europe, bypassing the traffic-congested and environment-risky Turkish straits. Under the 700 million euro project, oil will be tankered across the Black Sea from Novorossiysk, Russia, to Bourgas, Bulgaria, and will be piped from there over 288 km (including 155 km on Bulgarian territory) to Alexandroupolis (on the Greek Aegean coast). The annual capacity of the pipeline is designed at 35 million t, with a possibility for an increase to 50 million t.

Source: BTA