$1.2Bln Balkan Pipeline Gets Go-Ahead

Reuters ^ | December 29, 2004

[joan]

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia gave political support on Tuesday to a $1.2 billion private trans-Balkan oil pipeline that will allow Russian and Caspian crude to avoid congested Turkish waters, officials said.

Representatives from the three small Balkan states signed a declaration giving the green light to the U.S.-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corp., AMBO, to launch the 912-kilometer pipeline between Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Burgas and Vlore, on Albania's Adriatic coast.

"This is one of the most important infrastructure projects for regional, EU, and Euro-Atlantic integration for the western Balkans," Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano told reporters.

The long-delayed underground line, expected to begin operation in early 2008, will be able to move up to 750,000 barrels of oil per day.

Tankers ferrying oil to the Mediterranean and further west are currently subject to frequent and costly delays as they travel through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

AMBO said it had already secured some $900 million from the U.S. government development agency Overseas Private Investment Corp., U.S. Eximbank, and through a syndicated loan arranged by Credit Suisse First Boston.

The remaining 25 percent of the funding will be raised by attracting private equity investors and a new company, which will operate the pipeline on behalf of the shareholders in one year's time, said AMBO President Ted Ferguson.

Oil giants operating in the Caspian region like ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and BP, have long sought alternative routes to the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

The pipeline was first discussed in 1994, but was delayed due to a lack of political backing by the countries involved. The construction of the pipeline, expected to start in a year, will not preclude another pipeline to carry Russian oil from Burgas to the northeastern Greek port of Alexandroupolis which is now under discussion.

"We all know that Bosporus will sooner or later reach a point of saturation, so any bypass will be welcome. ... The two projects are equally important," Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said.

That pipeline, a 256-kilometer route with capacity of 700,000 bpd, should be built and run jointly by Bulgaria, Russia and Greece, but so far the three countries have failed to reach agreement on how to structure the 700 million euro ($954.7 million) project.

[joan]

ping

[jungleboy]

Bump to bookmark for later research/post... thanks joan for article.

[Destro]

why the wars were fought.

[oldreb]

I just posted a reply and it disappeared so I am making a test reply.

old reb

[joan]

That's too bad oldreb. I wonder what happened. Did you have comments on the article?

[oldreb]

Hello Joan,

I am not used to this board so I screwed up on my first post; but, what I was saying that your article shows why the USA was aiding Islmaic terrorist against a Christian nation. It was for oil pipeline. USA and Islamics teamed against Serbs to take Kosovo. USA gets oil pipe line to the Black sea, Islamics get Kosovo and the Serbs get --uh--err-- they get vilified and blamed. Milo is in Kangaroo court now.

old reb

[oldreb]

I had heard that NATO was out of Kosovo and only the EU was there. Now I learn that we have a permant base there. Hmmm

Here is a map of the oil lines going throught Kosovo.

http://www.bsrec.bg/taskforce/SYNERGY/oil.gif

[mark502inf]

Here is a map of the oil lines going throught Kosovo

Your map accurately reflects that none of those lines go through Kosovo.

Now I learn that we have a permant base there. Hmmm

Yep, Camp Bondsteel is a big secret.

[mark502inf]

why the wars were fought

A photo of the young OldReb & Destro reading some early Noam Chomsky.

[Destro]

And America's biggest European base (Camp Bondsteel) exists in Kosovo because? I mean we spent all that tax payer money in Kosovo to create a temporary base in Kosovo just to keep the peace?

[mark502inf]

America's biggest European base (Camp Bondsteel)

First, in no way is Bondsteel "America's biggest European base". Camp Bondsteel is a 1,000 acre facility which at its peak several years ago held about 4,000 soldiers. It now holds less than 2,000. It holds fewer troops than virtually all our bases in Germany; not to mention nearby Vicenza, Italy. It has no significant training facilites--nothing to compare with the thousands of acres at Grafenwohr & Vilseck in German and our leased areas in Poland. Bondsteel is also not on any major transport hubs-no seaport or major airfield or railroad and the road network is notoriously abysmal. It has none of the advantages the U.S. military seeks in its overseas bases; and are being offered by nearby countries eager for our presence--Albania, Bulgaria, Romania.

Bondsteel is designed and used for one thing only, to house our units stationed in Kosovo as part of the NATO KFOR mission. The military, learning from the Bosnia experience, built for the long term right away so we did not have troops for months or even years on end wading through the mud to get to their unheated tents so they could eat their MREs out of the rain. And that's that. For other theories, refer to the photo at post #10.

[Destro]

ell Iraq helped draw down the numbers some - and KFOR seems like it will be a mission to last forever. Meanwhile our forces are just a jump skip away from the most vulnerable part of the pipeline route. By the way the stated mission of protecting energy resources was blurted out be the NATO general in charge a few years ago - Joan, remember his name?

[oldreb]

Hey Joan,

Thanks for recommending this board to me. There is a ton of great info here! It has a different format that I have to get used to. Hey, I never knew you were a female.

old reb

[oldreb]

Hello Mark,

Thanks for the photo. It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I assume that Noam Chomsky has to do with Orthodox Christianity

[oldreb]

Hey Mark,

Now you just ruined my latest and greatest theory of why we bombed belgrade and took Kosovo for the Islamics.

I was only off by one state.
Just call me silly.

old reb

[mark502inf]

Kosovo for the Islamics

Reb, I'd be interested in why you say this. I've been in Islamic countries and I've been in Kosovo. Nobody who's actually been there would call Kosovo Islamic.

[joan]

I had heard that NATO was out of Kosovo and only the EU was there.

That is Bosnia, where they handed over the mission to EU very recently. However there are still 250 US soldiers going to be maintained there and it is broken down something like 100 on their own, and 150 mixed in with the UN or EU forces.

[oldreb]

Muslims are erasing all traces of Christians; ethnic cleansing.
quote:
Nato-led troops took control of mainly-Muslim Kosovo in June 1999.
Mob attacks
Clashes have continued between the majority Albanian population and the Serb minority since the Nato-led troops moved into Kosovo.
An outbreak of violence in March, in which Serb-owned homes and churches were attacked, left 19 people dead.
Bishop Artemije said the UK, France, Italy and Germany had failed to protect the Orthodox Church's property, followers and institutions.
Monasteries, medieval icons and frescos are among the religious sites to have been destroyed, he said, with 80 churches burned since 1999.
End quote

Islamic terrorist becomes prime minister of Kosovo

quote:
U.N.-APPROVED TERRORIST TO RUN KOSOVO
by Srdja Trifkovic
On December 3 the provincial parliament in Pristina voted to elect Ramush Haradinaj as prime minister. This 36-year-old former commander of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" has been indicted in Serbia on 108 detailed counts of murder, rape, and other crimes. He is also under investigation by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, which is usually reluctant to take an interest in non-Serbs unless the case is particularly egregious.
end quote

Islamic terrorist arrives to stoke the flames of war.

quote:
In mid-1997 he illegally entered the country [the Federal Republic of [Yugoslavia] and together with his brothers, Daut and Skeljzen, organized terrorist attacks on police departments in the villages of Rznic, municipality of Decani, and Ponosevac, municipality of Djakovica, as well as against refugee camps in Junik and Babalac. In the beginning of 1998 he formed a terrorist group in Glodjane which according to his orders conducted ambushes and harrassment of Serbs and Albanians loyal to the Republic of Serbia. In March 1998 this group carried out an attack on a police patrol in the village of Glodjane and on that occasion killed policeman Miodrag Otovic.
end quote

I am sure the Islamics are sweet as pie to the EU and NATO, Since they provided the airforce needed to ethnically cleans Kosovo.

[mark502inf]

Reb, you say Muslims are erasing all traces of Christians in Kosovo. That is incorrect. The Catholic Church is thriving there; in fact the elected President of Kosovo is Catholic and the largest Kosovar relief organization is the Mother Theresa Society. Outside of those informed by Serb propaganda, the Albanians are well known for a secular outlook and religious tolerance. Tolerance for Serbs is another matter. Serb Orthodox churches are attacked because they are Serb, not because they are Christian.

Further, those Muslims in Kosovo such as the Gorani & Ashkaeli & Roma & even those ethnic Albanians who are perceived as collaborators with the Serbs are treated the same as the Serbs, regardless of their status as Muslims.

If Islam was the cause, they'd be against Christians and for Muslims, but instead they are for Albanians and against Serbs & their allies.

Especially since 9/11, the Serbs have tried to gain sympathy by portraying their wars as against Islamists. The facts on the ground directly contradict their position. The Kosovar Albanian struggle is nationalist, not religious.

The Kosovar Albanians have been in various states of revolt for well over a hundred years--to include against the Muslim Ottomans when they were in charge prior to WWI. To them, Islam has nothing to do with it--it is a war for independence.