Bulgaria’s parliament has voted to scrap a pipeline deal to carry Russian oil to Greece.
In a vote 115-25, lawmakers on March 7 backed the government’s proposal to withdraw from the deal, which was signed in 2007.
The 280-kilometer pipeline was to carry Russian and Caspian oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece, bypassing Turkey’s congested Bosporus Straits.
The outgoing government of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov says the project — at an estimated cost of between $1.5 to 2 billion — cannot be executed under the financial conditions of the 2007 agreement.
A year ago, Bulgaria proposed to Russia and Greece to agree to cancel the deal, saying it would withdraw unilaterally after the lapse of a 12-month period.