Bulgaria decided to give up the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, terminating a joint project 15 years in the making and the chances of Greece gaining strategic geopolitic importance in the region.
Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia agreed in 2007 to build the pipeline after more than a decade of talks. But Bulgarian authorities proposed on Wednesday, December 7, that the agreement be canceled by mutual agreement.
The construction of the Trans-Balkan oil pipeline, designed to link the Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea, has long been hampered by the position of Bulgaria, which has threatened to abandon the project over environmental risks.
According to Epikaira magazine, the US are behind this failed cooperation between the three countries, since they had never been eyeing very positively this energy cooperation between Greece and Russia, which would render Turkey, Vosporos and the Dardanellia straits of much less importance for energy distribution.
Greece has not received an official notice from Sofia about its decision to give up on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, said Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Grigoris Delavekouras, ITAR-TASS reports.
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