Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, has announced that many issues were emerging with the planned Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.

Traikov spokes Tuesday at the “Eighth Round Table with the Government of Bulgaria” organized by Economist Conferences at the Sheraton Hotel in Sofia.

The Minister explained that serious questions about the feasibility and the environmental impact of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which is a project of Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece, were coming up as a result of surveys ordered by the Bulgarian government.

Traikov said a survey of the project company for the construction of the pipe about the capacity of the port of Rosenetz near the Black Sea city of Burgas for unloading large volumes of oil had led to negative conclusions. An alternative research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has also raised many similar issues.

“The project company has submitted a request to the Ministry of Environment and Waters for the impact of the future pipeline on the environment, and after the Ministry is ready with the assessment, the Bulgarian government will be able to decide on whether the project is feasible, or not,” the Minister stated.

He made it clear that the government had initiated talks with the Greek side about the pipeline but also said that no amendments to the existing international agreement could be made until the environmental assessment was ready, which would probably take months.

“If the environmental assessment of the Ministry is negative, there can be no project at all, not even for the construction of a hut,” Traikov declared.

Earlier Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, also stated that the final decision on the oil pipeline would be made after the ruling of the Environment Ministry.

On Sunday, Borisov said the previous government of Sergey Stanishev had signed an international agreement with Russia and Greece for the construction of Burgas-Alexandroupolis, in which Bulgaria’s projects were totally undefended. He intends to make public the agreement for the pipe, which is secret.

Environmentalists and public organizations in Burgas and Sofia have raised alarm over the potential devastating environmental impact of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline which hurt Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast nature as well as the lucrative tourism sector. In 2008 and 2009, the residents of three Black Municipalities – Burgas, Sozopol, and Pomorie – rejected overwhelmingly the construction of the Russian oil pipe.

The Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline together with the South Stream gas pipeline and the Belene Nuclear Power Plant will be a matter of the talks of the Inter-governmental Bulgarian-Russian Commission in Sofia on December 10-11, 2009. Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko will be arriving to Bulgaria for the talks.

Bulgaria, Greece and Russia agreed to build the pipeline between Burgas and Alexandroupolis, taking Caspian oil to the Mediterranean skirting the congested Bosphorus, in 2007 after more than a decade of intermittent talks.

The agreement for the company which will construct the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil transit pipeline was signed by Bulgaria during Russian President Putin's visit to Bulgaria in 2008.

The 280-kilometer pipeline, with 166 kilometers passing through Bulgaria, would have an initial annual capacity of 35 million tonnes, which could be later expanded to 50 million tonnes. Its costs are estimated at up to USD 900 M.

It is expected to be completed by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.

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