Bulgaria Has Paid All Its Dues Under Burgas-Alexadroupolis Project - FinMin
Bulgaria has met all its obligations stemming from the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, finance minister Simeon Dyankov said.
The country's financial obligations under the project until the end of 2011 totalled about 6.7 million euro and the full amount has already been paid, the state-run Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) quoted Dyankov as telling Parliament on Friday.
Bulgaria owes nothing under the project and had the legal opportunity to withdraw from it, Dyankov said.
Bulgaria's premium installment in the project for 2008 added up to 1.42 million euro ($1.87 million) and was made in 2008, whereas the installments for the following two years - amounting to 4.88 million euro and 1.32 million euro respectively - were paid in February, Dyankov said.
The so called premium participation is formed on the basis of a country's shareholding in the project. Under the shareholding agreement signed in 2008, Bulgaria and Greece hold 24.5% stakes each, and Russia owns the remainder.
Bulgaria withdrew from the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline project in December, following a government decision that the project could not be carried out under the conditions and financial parametres set in the 2007 agreement.
The 258-kilometre pipeline was designed to link Burgas with Alexandroupolis overland. Tankers were planned to discharge the oil at an offshore terminal in Burgas where it could be fed into the pipeline for transportation to Alexandroupolis.