Greek Development Deputy Minister George Salagoudis on Friday hailed the signing of an agreement between Greece, Russia and Bulgaria paving the way for the construction of an oil pipeline between Burgas (Bulgaria) and Alexandroupoli (Greece).

Speaking to reporters in Moscow, the Greek minister said that "we had a difficult cooperation that ended successfully. I think that today's tri-partite meeting made a decisive step towards completing the project and achieved two significant goals. First, creating a group of oil companies. These companies met today for the first time and signed a protocol setting TNK-BP as the coordinator of the group. They also set goals and a timetable for their work. The tri-partite commission also signed a protocol to meet again on March 9-10 in Moscow to examine the recommendations of the companies' group. After that, the three governments are expected to sign a political memorandum on the project by March 15".

Salagoudis said that except for the three companies registered in the protocol, other companies such as Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosneft and Transneft participated as observers. "I think this is very positive and showed an expanding group. We believe this expansion will continue to include more oil companies in the consortium to build and operate the pipeline," the Greek minister stressed.

Source: Athens News Agency

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