The Bourgas-Alexadroupolis oil pipeline will move forward regardless if oil prices rise or fall since the project is needed as an alternative for increased oil exports from Russia and the Caspian that will further burden existing oil routes, Christos Dimas, general manager of the joint venture Helpe SA – Thraki SA, which owns a 23.5 stake in the pipeline, told New Europe on the sidelines of a conference in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.
A session of the Third South East Europe Energy Dialogue organised by the IENE on June 19 focused on the Oil Market in Southeast Europe – Upstream and Downstream Activities.
Expensive oil certainly helps the construction of new projects. “When oil prices increase that means more profits for oil companies, which means they have more money in their disposal therefore more oil discoveries, more oil pipelines,” Dimas said. Crude oil traded near USD 71 a barrel in New York on June 19. Prices have risen 60 percent this year and reached a seven-month high of USD 73.23 on June 11.
The Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline will help facilitate the congested Bosporus and the Dardanelles by providing a bypass pipeline and will be useful for redirecting larger quantities of Caspian oil to flow through Russian routes instead of using Ceyhan. Dimas cited a study predicting that by 2020 it will be necessary to transport across the straits more than 170 million tonnes per year of crude.
Bulgaria, Greece and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement in 2007 under which Russia is obliged to secure the necessary oil supplies to fill the pipeline. In 2008, Dutch-registered Trans-Balkan Pipeline BV was formed that will construct and own the pipeline.
Dimas noted that the project is “on track” and construction will go ahead as planned in early 2011. “It moves according to plan. Problems will always exist,” he said.
Dimas told New Europe that ILF, a German firm, would complete its technical and financial survey for the pipeline project, until the fall of 2009.
Regarding environmental opposition, he said a consultation procedure is underway to interact with the local communities in the Evros prefecture to address social and environmental issues even before the studies are completed.
A long-time Russian diplomat in Greece told New Europe that people are a lot more aware about environmental issues today than when Greece first pitched the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline idea to then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin during his visit to Corfu in 1994.  But on the positive side, the diplomat noted that the profit margin of the project is a lot higher now than it was back then.
Bulgaria is also facing a lot of opposition from local communities worried about the effect of the pipeline on tourism. “Unfortunately the project lost momentum over the years and the last few years we have a lot of common statements from people living in municipalities where the pipeline will start,” Valentin Kunev, general manager of BBSPA, Bulgaria, said, responding from a question from New Europe. “In general they will be overcome in time.”