CROATIA: Five nations sign southeast Europe oil pipeline deal
- 00:02:06
- ITN Source
CROATIA: Five nations sign southeast Europe oil pipeline deal
Five southeastern European countries have signed a declaration on Tuesday (April 3) to construct a pipeline connecting the Black Sea with Italy and carrying oil from the energy-rich Caspian to the European Union. The project fits with Europe's aim of reducing its reliance on Russia and the Middle East for its energy needs. The Caspian, the region holding the world's third largest oil and natural gas reserves according to U.S. estimates, has a key role to play. Top officials in charge of energy policies from Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy signed the declaration to start work on the 1,400-km long Pan-European Oil Pipeline (PEOP) from Constanta to Trieste, worth between 1.5 billion Euros (2 billion U.S. dollars) and 2.6 billion Euros (3.5 billion U.S. dollars). "This pipeline will take oil to the regions with increased oil productions," European Union (EU) Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said after the signing. "It will bypass congestions and it will bring oil directly to the consumers without any need for further loading. Todays event is one of the setting stones in this direction," said Piebalgs. The pipeline, due for completion by 2012, will supply refineries in northern Italy and central Europe with crude from the Caspian -- notably the former Soviet states Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The Caspian has become a focal point for untapped oil and gas since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The declaration said the route may also be used to transport natural gas. The new pipeline will connect the Romanian port of Constanta with Trieste in Italy and have an annual capacity of 60-90 million tonnes (1.2-1.8 million barrels per day (bpd)). In 2005, oil from the southern sections of the Caspian Sea began pumping through a pipeline built by a BP-led consortium to the Turkish seaport of Ceyhan. That aims to pump one million bpd in the course of 2008. Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said there is also an environmental issue to this signing. "This pipeline, which will connect Constanta in Romania, (on) the Black Sea, with Italy, will reduce the number of oil tankers in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean and that is another benefit for all those who care about ecological development, and that, I believe, is all of us," said Sanader. Most parts of the future Pan-European Oil Pipeline are already in place. It is necessary to build a part connecting the Romanian city of Pitesti with Pancevo in Serbia, and a stretch between Croatia's northern Adriatic through Slovenia to Trieste.
ITN Source | April 4, 2007
