January 2011 Vol. 238 No. 1

Projects

Bulgaria Rejects Approach To New Oil Pipeline

Bulgaria rejected two environmental impact reports on a planned oil pipeline that bypasses Turkey’s crowded Bosporus Strait. Bulgaria ordered the study before deciding whether to back out of the project to construct the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline on concern an oil spill would harm the Balkan country’s Black Sea resorts. Russia, Bulgaria and Greece agreed in 2007 to build the 285-km pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea. The $1.4 billion) link, with capacity of 35 million metric tons of oil a year, would bypass the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, saving shipping costs. Meanwhile a new inter