SOFIA, Bulgaria, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Bulgaria stands to make significant economic gains if it decides to make formal commitments to an oil pipeline to the Aegean Sea, Russian executives said.
Nikolay Tokarev, the chief executive at Russian oil transit company Transneft, said expansions to regional pipelines meant there would be plenty of oil to feed the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, the official Sofia News Agency reports.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in December he would publish the contract for the pipeline, which was signed by the previous government, in order to prove the project is not a good idea.
"The contract is not profitable for Bulgaria and does not protect its national interests," he said.
Tokarev countered that Sofia stood to make as much as $50 million per year in transit fees from the pipeline.
Russia, Bulgaria and Greece agreed in 2007 to move forward with the 174-mile pipeline from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea along an overland route.
The $900 million Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline is slated for completion near the end of 2011.
"In short, the leadership of this country just has to make a decision," said Tokarev.
