From: Bill Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Foreign Affairs Front Page News Source: kathimerini Published: 9/01 SOFIA (AFP) - The construction of an oil pipeline across the Balkans from Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Burgas to Vlore on Albania's Adriatic coast should begin by the end of the year, the US-led consortium in charge of the operation said yesterday. The 890-kilometer (550-mile) pipeline, which will cross the troubled republic of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), will take four years to build, cost 1.13 billion dollars (1.24 billion euros) and have a daily capacity of 750,000 barrels of crude oil, said Ted Ferguson of the Balkan pipeline consortium (AMBO). "I believe the decision will be made by the end of the year and real work to develop the project will begin at the end of the year," he said. Speaking before a meeting with Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Kostadin Pascalev, Ferguson said the pipeline was needed as an alternative to the Bosphorus sea route through Turkey to bring oil from Central Asia to western markets via the Black Sea. The Bosphorus shipping route would be insufficient to transport growing oil supplies of oil coming from the Caspian Sea region, he said, pointing out that a pipeline linking Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossisk was due to begin pumping in September. Bulgaria has said it will also back plans for a pipeline linking Burgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea. The 700-million-dollar pipeline would stretch 320 kilometers and transport 40 million tons of oil annually. But Ferguson said AMBO's route was a better choice. "We believe that the port of Vlore is more attractive than the ports in the Aegean Sea for exports because it's deeper water (and) closer to the areas and ports where the oil will be sold," he said. Oil arriving in Vlore would be transported via Rotterdam to the United States, he said. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
