TIRANA, Aug. 28 – Macedonian media have reported that the AMBO pipeline project that will run through Albania has secured up to USD900 million.
Representatives of the three countries the AMBO project passes through, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania, will meet with the AMBO project managers in order to discuss speeding up the procedures for construction of this pipeline.
But the total cost of the AMBO project may be up to USD $1.5 billion, which means that hundreds of millions of dollars are still needed more to finish the pieline.
If the project starts to be built next year, it will need fewer than three years to be completed, and could become operational in 2011.
The pipeline will link Burgas in Bulgaria to Vlore in Albania.
Like the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, the 895-kilometer AMBO pipeline will bypass the busy Bosporus strait in Turkey.
Ministers from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania signed an agreement on Jan. 31 setting out the legal framework for the AMBO project.
The project will be financed by 71 percent debt and 29 percent equity. It is being organized by the Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corp., after a feasibility study financed by the U.S. government in 2000.
Once financing has been secured and impact assessments completed, construction could begin in 2008 and the first oil could flow in 2011.
