Trans-Balkan Pipeline, the project company supposed to construct the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, has not reacted to the statement of Prime Minister Borisov that Bulgaria is pulling out of the project.

Earlier on Friday, Borisov took everybody by surprise, including his own energy minister, Traicho Traikov, by declaring that Bulgaria was canceling its participation in the Bulgar-Alexandroupolis project and was freezing the construction of the Belene Nuclear Plant, two of the three large-scale Russian-sponsored energy projects in Bulgaria.

Sources from the Bulgarian branch of the Trans-Balkan Pipeline company told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) that the company, a joint venture of Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia, “is solely responsible for building and operating a good, safe, and environment-friendly pipeline” and had very little influence over the political fate of the project.

Novinite.com has attempted to reach the company’s PR director Vladimir Nemtsev but was told that he will be available on Tuesday. The head office of TBP in the Netherlands, as well as the contact official of some of the international participants in the project – Russian companies Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, and Hellenic Petroleum – were also unavailable for comments and reactions due to the end of the working day on Friday.

After Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, openly admitted that he was startled by Borisov’s statement as the Cabinet had not made any formal decision to pull out of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project, there have been no further comments by government sources to clear the confusion.

In his brief announced Friday after meeting with the Ambassadors of the EU member states in Sofia, the Bulgarian Prime Minister supported what he described as a “decision” to cancel the country’s participation in the oil pipeline with arguments based on two of the three major points of criticism of the project – its uncertain economic feasibility and its potentially destructive environmental effects. A third point of the main critics usually has to do with increasing Russia’s geopolitical influence in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria and Greece each have a 24.5% stake in the Trans-Balkan Pipeline company, while Russia has 51%. The Russian shares are owned by three energy companies Transneft (33.34%), Rosneft (33.33%) and Gazprom Neft (33.33%); the Greek shares belong to a consortium name HELPE SA-THRAKI SA, a joint venture between Hellenic Petroleum and Thraki, owned by Prometheus Gas and the Latsis Group, which has 23.5%, while 1% belongs to the Greek government. The Bulgarian Burgas-Alexandroupolis Project Company is 100% owned by the Bulgarian government and is under the responsibility of the Minister of Finance, Simeon Djankov.

The construction of the 279 km pipeline for transporting Caspian and Russian oil by circumventing the Bosphorus Straits was expected to be completed by 2011 and to cost about USD 1-1.5 B.