The $1 billion project, which will run 280 kilometers (175 miles) from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to Greece's Alexandroupolis, on the Aegean, will allow Russia to export oil through the Black Sea, bypassing the often crowded Bosporus Strait in Turkey.
"We were extremely cautious until lately not to join the project, but the government has decided to step up its implementation and authorized Transneft to coordinate the project, so now we are working hard on it," Semyon Vainshtok said.
He said the Russian party to the project will be represented by state-controlled energy companies Gazprom, Rosneft and Transneft, which will set up a joint venture on a parity basis.
"As it has been decided that Russia will hold 51% in the project, our [Transneft's] share will be 17%," Vainshtok said.
He added that Greece has dropped its compensation claims for reducing its and Bulgaria's common participation in the project to 49%. Initially, the Balkan states pressed for equal stakes in the project, but Moscow sought at least a blocking stake in the pipeline, which will pump Russian oil.
Vainshtok said private companies could participate in the Greek-Bulgarian 49% stake. "It may be Shell or Kazakh companies, whatever," he said.
The project, which has been discussed since 1993, will have an initial throughput capacity of 35 million metric tons annually (255 million barrels), before raising the figure to 50 million metric tons (370 million barrels).
