US oil giant Chevron is interested in the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and will try to convince the Bulgarian government that it should be built, according to Nikolay Tokarev, President of Russian pipeline company Transneft.

Tokarev, as cited by the TASS news agency and the BGNES news agency, noted that Chevron’s interest in the project was related to the plans for the expansion of the capacity of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in which the US-based energy giant had a 15% stake.

The company did not respond to a question on the matter of Russian business daily Vedomosti.

The CPC’s capacity is to increase to 67 million tonnes of oil after the expansion, up from the rate of 40 million tonnes of oil in 2014.

The pipeline carries oil from Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, where the oil is loaded onto tankers.

“The capacity of the Bosphorus is not limitless. The additional volumes that will come up after the expansion of the consortium will be difficult to transport,” Tokarev said.

Tokarev pointed out that Bulgaria had recently launched an initiative to terminate the project company, adding that Bulgaria had no legal grounds to pursue a unilateral withdrawal from the project.

He claimed that Chevron had promised to hold consultations with the Bulgarian partners.

Tokarev suggested that the project was interesting and that it had a future, not least because it would solve the problems with the Bosphorus.

Asked to comment on the potential participation of Burgas-Alexandroupolis in the CPC, a representative of the consortium made clear that the question was being discussed but no decisions had yet been made.

The Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project was suspended in 2011 as the Bulgarian authorities questioned the environmental safety of the scheme.

In 2007 Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece signed an agreement on the construction of the oil pipeline.

The Trans-Balkan Pipeline B.V. (ТВР) project company was established to manage the implementation of the scheme, with Russia’s Transneft, Rosneft and Gazpromneft controlling a 51% stake and Bulgaria and Greece holding stakes of 24.5% in it.
The cost of the oil pipeline was estimated at EUR 1 B.