AMBO pipeline

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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected pipeline.
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AMBO pipeline is a planned oil pipeline from Bulgarian Black Sea port Burgas via Macedonia to Albanian Adriatic port Vlore. The aim of 917 kilometer long trans-Balkan pipeline is to bypass Turkish straits in transportation of Russian and Caspian oil. The pipeline is expected to cost 1.13 billion USD and it will transport 750,000 barrels of oil per day. The pipeline is planned to build and operated by the US-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation (AMBO). The project is backed by the US government, who financed a feasibility study of pipeline.

The pipeline was proposed already in 1994. However, the initiative between the presidents of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria was signed only in July 2003. On 27 December 2004, prime-ministers of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria signed a political declaration, followed by the memorandum of understanding between representatives of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria and Ted Ferguson, the president of AMBO. On 30 October 2006, Albania and Macedonia signed a protocol to determinate the entrance points of the pipeline. The entrance point will be Stebleve village in Albania and Lakaica village in Macedonia. Similar protocol between Bulgaria and Macedonia will be signed later in 2006.

Competing projects to the AMBO pipeline are the Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline from Burgas to Greece Aegean port Alexandroupoli, and the Pan-European Pipeline from Constanţa in Romania to Trieste in Italy. For Caspian oil, it competes also with Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Compering with Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline, the AMBO pipeline is longer and more expensive, but at the same time Vlore could accommodate larger tankers and is more accessible than Alexandroupoli. Also, an oil spill in the Aegean would have hard influence Greece’s tourism industry. However, the main oil exporter Russia is preferring the Burgas-Alexandroupoli option as the shortest and cheapest.