27-09-02 The governments of the Republic of Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania and the Board of Directors of AMBO (Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline corporation) announced that the United States Government-sponsored feasibility study for the trans-Balkan oil pipeline project has been successfully completed and delivered to the contracting parties.
The United States Government’s Trade and Development Agency provided significant financial support towards completing a full $ 1 mm study, which updated and enlarged the project's original feasibility study dating from early 1996.

The trans-Balkan oil pipeline will carry crude oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas to the Albanian Adriatic Sea port of Vlore. AMBO, which is a privately-funded company headquartered in Pound Ridge, New York, is the developer of this $ 1.1 bn. project.
Together with the US Government's South Balkan Development Initiative (SBDI) and the Stability Pact process, the AMBO pipeline will become an integral part of East-West corridor number 8 including highway, railway, gas, and optic-optic telecommunications lines. Specifically, the AMBO pipeline will permit oil companies operating in the Caspian Sea to ship their oil to Rotterdam and the East Coast of the USA at substantially less cost than they are experiencing today.

Brown & Root Energy Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton, an American company, completed the original feasibility study for this project. The pipeline -- 36-inch diameter with a projected throughput of 750,000 bpd -- will extend for approximately 890 km reaching a maximum altitude of approximately 1,000 meters in the Albanian segment.
Each of these three countries is fully supportive of this project and has signed an Interministerial Protocol to confirm its backing.