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A European Union embargo on Russian oil that takes impact on Monday has led Greece and Bulgaria to speak about reviving a long-defunct oil pipeline venture that bypasses the Bosphorus Strait.
The pipeline would run 280km (about 174 miles) from the port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea to the port of Burgas on the Black Sea, and would possibly proceed as far north because the port of Constanza in Romania, Bulgaria’s Vitality Minister Roman Hristov advised Al Jazeera.
“We’ve got a two-year derogation [from EU sanctions] to purchase Russian oil, however after that, we’ll face issues due to the hike in transit charges by way of the Bosphorus,” Hristov stated in reply to a query from Al Jazeera at an power convention in Athens.
So, we’ve begun discussing the revival of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, and its extension north to the ports of Varna and Constanza,” he added.
“We assist the venture,” stated Greek Vitality Minister Kostas Skrekas in a press release. Neither minister agreed to reply additional questions.
The EU transfer disrupts tanker commerce from Russia’s oil export terminal at Novorossiysk on the Black Sea’s east coast to EU ports on its west coast.
Different suppliers
Refineries at Burgas and Constanza can nonetheless purchase oil from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
A Kazakh oil pipeline ends on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Terminal close to Novorossiysk, and an Azeri oil pipeline terminates at Georgia’s Supsa additional south.
However it isn’t sufficient to fulfill their wants, particularly when Ukraine’s wants are taken into consideration.
The deficit is stuffed by extra volumes from different sources which might be shipped into the Black Sea by way of the Bosphorus Strait.
The unique Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline thought, first aired in 1993, was to movement south, exporting crude oil from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and past.
“The true drawback was delays and bottlenecking on the strait. That is very straightforward to beat with a pipeline,” stated Mike Myrianthis, a Greek oil trade veteran who was concerned within the venture on the time.
“We wished to be tied to a serious producer for long-term provide … There was an excellent relationship with Russia then,” he advised Al Jazeera. “I bear in mind we had been speaking a few second, parallel pipeline.”
In 2007, Greece, Bulgaria and Russia signed a political settlement to construct the pipeline, with Russia promising to offer 35,000-50,000 tonnes of oil a 12 months to fill it.
A 650,000-tonne tanker farm in Alexandroupolis would guarantee a continuing provide to ships.
However Bulgaria pulled out of the venture in 2010, citing environmental issues. Trade insiders inform Al Jazeera it was US opposition to dependence on Russian oil that scuppered the venture.
However Russia wouldn’t profit from the north-flowing pipeline, and the concept has acquired new urgency with Western sanctions on Russian oil, which the Worldwide Vitality Company assumes to be everlasting.
Final October, Turkey added impetus to the pipeline when it hiked transit charges for tankers utilizing the Bosphorus Strait fivefold to $4 per tonne of oil, including about half a proportion level to present oil costs.
Turkey would elevate its revenue from transit charges from $40m to $200m a 12 months, in accordance with the Day by day Sabah newspaper.
Turkey has its personal plan to bypass the congested Bosphorus with a waterway operating west of it. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed Canal Istanbul amid nice fanfare in 2011, however building has not but begun.
Geopolitical contest
Till the conflict in Ukraine, oil and fuel pipelines flowed south from Russia by way of Ukraine and the Balkans.
The Ukraine conflict has thrown Greece and Turkey into geopolitical competitors, as Alexandroupolis has begun to reverse these power flows, whereas Turkey is changing into Russia’s new southern conduit.
“The concept is to create a north-south pipeline axis for fuel and oil, which may also be bolstered by rail transport. All this community is finally meant to finish up in Ukraine so even that nation may be provided from the south,” stated Myrianthis.
On this contest, Greece’s area of Western Thrace has already turn into an vital different to the Bosphorus.
A 2019 defence settlement has allowed america to make use of the port of Alexandroupolis as a logistics base to ship provides and reinforcements to ahead NATO members Bulgaria and Romania, and weapons into Ukraine itself.
The border of Romania with Moldova and Ukraine is barely a day away from Alexandroupolis by rail, a quicker transit than by way of the Bosphorus, and a extra reliable one since Turkey introduced it was closing the strait to all navy site visitors in response to the conflict in Ukraine.
Final Could, Russia lower fuel flows to Bulgaria, ostensibly as a result of it refused to pay in roubles.
Greece has since turn into Bulgaria’s sole supply of fuel, which travels from Azerbaijan throughout Turkey and northern Greece by way of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
An Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (IGB), operational since October, siphons off a billion cubic metres a 12 months from TAP to the Bulgarian fuel community.
By the tip of 2023, Alexandroupolis will purchase a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to import liquefied pure fuel (LNG), and the IGB pipeline might be prolonged 28km (about 17 miles) south to achieve it, additional eroding the Russian fuel monopoly in Southeast Europe.
There’s speak of a second IGB pipeline being constructed parallel to the primary, and of no less than two extra FSRUs.
Greece-North Macedonia pipeline
Greece is in discussions with North Macedonia to construct a separate fuel pipeline to that nation.
Greece, which plans to export 8.5 billion cubic metres of fuel to the Balkans by 2025, is quick changing into the principle provider of non-Russian fuel to the area.
The Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline would add one other dimension to its position as a supplier of power safety.
Turkey, too, has acquired geopolitical weight as Russian power is progressively dislodged from Japanese Europe. Three Russian fuel pipelines already enter Turkey.
At a gathering with Erdogan in Astana, Kazakhstan on October 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced he was ready to construct a fourth, turning Turkey into an export hub for Russian fuel.
“If there’s an curiosity in Turkey and our potential patrons in different international locations, [we] might contemplate constructing one other fuel pipeline system and making a fuel hub in Turkey for gross sales to different international locations, to 3rd international locations, primarily, in fact, to European ones, if they’re, in fact, On this,” Putin was reported as saying.
Turkey has welcomed the venture.
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