Russian Energy Min Says Bulgaria Pays off Debt for Burgas-Alexandroupolis Pipeline Project
Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko said that Bulgaria has paid off its debt for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, Russian media reported.
"They [Bulgarians] paid the money that they were supposed to pay," news agency Interfax quoted Shamtko as saying. He quoted no figure.
According to reports in Russian media last year, Bulgaria had accumulated 7.3 million euro ($9.7 million) in debt to the other participants in the project.
In December, Bulgaria decided to pull out of the project, saying that it would not be possible to carry it out under the terms stipulated in the trilateral agreement signed in 2007.
The 258-kilometre pipeline was designed to link the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas with the Greek Aegean port of 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.