Bulagria, Russia and Greece are about to sign the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline agreement, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Assen Gagauzov said.

The agreement will be endorsed on February 7 2007 in Bulgaria’s coastal city of Bourgas. The pipeline is to be set up in three years, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The governments of Bulgaria, Greece and Russia, the three countries involved in the project, have to approve the agreement. It is expected to be signed in Athens, Gagauzov said.

Construction of the pipeline should begin by the end of 2007, Gagauzov said.

Bourgas-Alexandroupolis will transfer Russian gas from Caspian Sea through Bulgaria to the Greek Aegean coast. The pipeline will be 280 km long and costs nearly 709 million euro.

Russian president Vladimir Putin pressured recently Bulgaria and Greece to speed up the agreement, threatening that Russia would abandon the project, AFP said.

Negotiations over the project are ongoing over the past 14 years. Main disagreements focus on shares each country will hold. Bulgaria and Greece wanted to have the same parts as Russia.

Finally both countries agreed to receive 24.5 per cent of the pipeline each, while Russia will hold 51 per cent.