Realization of project for construction of oil pipeline from Constance to Trieste, 1,319 km long, to start in April

Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Italy will sign the Memorandum of Understanding about the Pan-European Oil Pipeline in Zagreb on April 3, 2007. This will initiate the realization of the project for construction of oil pipeline 1.319 km long, from Romanian harbor Constance to Italian harbor Trieste - said the Deputy Minister of Economy Željko Tomšić to Croatian media.

Tomšić, who should present the Memorandum to the members of the European Commission in Brussels, said that the pipeline would transport the oil from the Caspian region, namely Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, to the Middle and Western Europe.

According to the project, the pipeline should pass through Slovenia in length of 29 km, but the local Government, due to alleged protection of rocky area, does not want to have the pipeline built in Slovenia, so that the representative of Slovenia will not put his signature on the Memorandum.

It is estimated that the construction could start in 2009 and that the transport of oil could start in 2011 or 2012. The construction would cost between 2 and 3.5 billion USD. According to present projections, between 60 and 90m tons of oil would be transported through the pipeline on annual basis.