Russia, Greece and Bulgaria initiated the project of a trans-Balkan oil pipeline from Bulgaria’s Black Sea port of Burgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis in 1994.
The project is designed to create a new direct route for exporting Russia’s Caspian Sea oil to Mediterranean markets through Novorossiisk, Bulgaria and Greece.
The Burgas – Alexandroupolis oil pipeline has a total planned length of about 300 km. The pipeline will be 1,000 mm in diameter. There will be two or three pumping stations. The pipeline is expected to have an initial capacity of about 15 million tonnes of oil per year, rising to about 24 million tonnes per year during the second phase, and about 35 million tonnes per year during the third phase.
The tripartite working committee for constructing the Burgas – Alexandroupolis oil pipeline held a session in Athens in November 2004. Following this session a Russian-Bulgarian-Greek intergovernmental memorandum on cooperation in implementing the trans-Balkan project was agreed on and initialed. This document was signed 12 April 2005 in Sofia.