Russian state-owned company “Transneft” has started talks with Turkey, Italy, and Greece for forming a consortium to manage the two oil pipeline projects – Burgas-Alexandroupolis and Samsun-Ceyhan.

This has been announced by the President of Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev, as cited by the Russian agency PRIME-TASS.

Tokarev has said there was a real possibility to unite the two projects for oil pipelines circumventing the Turkish straits, and that the idea was currently a matter of discussion among the Russians and Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

In his words, the other parties have accepted with interest the idea to bind together the two pipeline projects in one consortium because such an arrangement would create an opportunity for eliminating other proposed routes and would ensure the high quality of the oil delivered through both pipes.

Tokarev is quoted as saying that the proposal of the Turkish side to give the Russian companies favorable conditions for transporting oil through the Bosphorus if they participated in the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline was also very appealing. He has underscored that the two routes were not competing.

In the report of PRIME TASS there is no mention of Bulgaria, which is one of three participants together with Russia and Greece in the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline – that is actually supposed to pass mostly through its territory.

PRIME TIME reminds that Transneft has been expressing its concern over Bulgaria’s position on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline after the new center-right government of Boyko Borisov and the GERB party took over in connection with potential environmental issues in Southeast Bulgaria that might created by the pipe.

The new Bulgarian government is also not entirely satisfied with the economic conditions of the project under which it is only supposed to be getting an annual transit fee of USD 35 M. The terms have been negotiated by the previous government of Socialist Sergey Stanishev.

From Tokarev's statements it does not become clear why Bulgaria is not included in the pipeline consortium talks, or how the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline could be modified if Bulgaria is excluded.

Various critics, mainly from the left, have slammed the concerns of the Borisov government saying that if Bulgaria does not help the Russians realize Burgas-Alexandroupolis, Russia is going to use the alternative route through Turkey – Samsun-Ceyhan – thus circumventing Bulgaria.

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