Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has said that his country wants to revive the Trans-Balkan oil pipeline project to ensure the supply of crude oil to Bulgariaʼs Black Sea refinery.
Reuters writes about it.
To this end, Bulgaria is negotiating with Greece to build a 300-kilometer oil pipeline to transport crude oil from the Greek port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas.
As part of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, an oil embargo was introduced. It was supposed to be operational in six months for crude oil and in eight months for petroleum products. Exceptions are Bulgaria and Croatia. The EU allowed Croatia to import Russian oil until the end of 2023 and Bulgaria until 2024.
However, by then, Bulgaria needs to secure enough non-Russian crude oil to continue operations at the 196,000-barrel-per-day Black Sea Refinery. This refinery provides more than 75% of fuel for the local market.
In 2011, Bulgaria abandoned the pipeline project, which was then supposed to pump up to 50 million tons of Russian oil to Greece, due to economic and environmental considerations. Its estimated value 12 years ago was one billion euros.
"We agreed with the Greek prime minister and the Greek president to restore the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project as soon as possible, but this time the supplies should go from Alexandroupolis to Burgas," Radev said at the energy forum on January 17, 2023.
Bulgarian Energy Minister Rosen Hristov hopes to sign a memorandum of understanding with Greece in the next few weeks to begin work on the pipeline project.
- On January 11, Bloomberg, citing a report by the Helsinki Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA), wrote that Russia loses more than $170 million a day due to oil price restrictions. According to the organization, on February 5, when restrictions will be extended to oil products, the Russian Federation will lose even more — $280 million per day.