The formalities concerning Bulgaria’s participation in the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project will be completed within a month. This statement came from Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov during an international conference on The Energy Crossroads of the Black Sea Region and South Eastern Europe: Investments and Trade Opportunities after 2007, held on May 30. “We have the ambition to complete all the formalities relating to Bourgas-Alexandroupolis; this has been agreed with Russian industry and energy minister Viktor Khistenko,” Ovcharov said. Questioned by reporters, Ovcharov said that Bulgaria would set up a new company for participation in the project. However, he did not commit himself to details about the company’s structure, saying things would become clearer in a few days.On May 3, the Council of Ministers decided that Bulgaria would withdraw from Transbalkan Oil Pipeline Bulgaria. The company was registered in 2003 under a decree of the Council of Ministers for the purposes of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis project. Together with the state, shareholders consist of seven private companies.

According to Ovcharov, over the next few years about six billion euro will be invested in the Bulgarian energy sector, mainly in the Maritsa Iztok 1 complex, the Belene nuclear power plant, Bourgas-Alexandroupolis, the Nabucco gas project and connecting Bulgaria’s power grid with the ones of neighbouring countries. The cable mains to Macedonia are under construction, negotiations are being held with Greece on the project, a tender has been invited for the Belene nuclear power plant construction, and the energy ministers of all the countries participating in Nabucco are meeting next month, Ovcharov said.