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D-day nears for Pan-European pipe



By Upstream staff 

Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy are set to sign a deal to build an oil pipeline that will connect the Black Sea with western and central Europe, the Croatian Economy Ministry said today.

Energy ministers from the five nations will meet in Zagreb next week to sign a declaration that will see work on the 1400 kilometre, $3 billion Pan-European Oil Pipeline (PEOP) get under way.

"The agreement will also be signed by the EU Commissioner for energy (Andris Piebalgs) as the block gives strong support to this project," spokeswoman Michaela Julijana Vranjes told Reuters.

The pipeline will connect the Romanian port of Constanta with Trieste in Italy. Its annual capacity will be between 60 million and 90 million tonnes of crude, and it would supply crude from the Caspian basin to refineries in northern Italy and central Europe.

The project was to be signed last year but it was delayed due to environmental concerns in Slovenia. The transport of crude through PEOP is planned to start in 2012 at the earliest.

Because of environmental concerns, Croatia virtually scrapped another oil pipeline project, Druzhba-Adria, which had been meant to connect Russian oilfields with the Adriatic coast.

The first phase of the work on PEOP will include a comprehensive study on environmental protection, Vranjes said.


Monday, 26 March, 2007, 12:26 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 26 March, 2007, 12:26 GMT

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