A recently set up Greek-Bulgarian working group met in Athens on Friday to discuss reviving the Alexandroupolis-Burgas oil pipeline project.
The meeting was attended by Greek Environment & Energy Ministry Minister Kostas Skrekas and his counterpart of Bulgaria Rossen Hristov, who agreed that the pipeline is of great geostrategic importance for both countries.
Furthermore, it was also understood that this project will contribute to Bulgaria’s independence from Russian oil, but also to the further transformation of the port city of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece into an energy hub.
It was also dicsussed that a special-purpose company will be tasked with compiling a feasibility study for the specific project.
“With a shared vision for the well-being of our citizens,” said Skrekas in a statement after the meeting, “we are consolidating Greece and Bulgaria as poles of stability and security in the whole of Southeast Europe, constantly deepening our strategic cooperation in the energy sector.”
Establishing this working group was foreseen in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two energy ministers at Maximos Mansion on February 16, in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev.
The project was first conceived in 1993 to transport oil from the Caspian Sea to Bulgaria and via Burgas to Alexandroupolis, but had several starts and stops before being abandoned in 2011.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
