Our country is one of the rare ones that has an oil pipeline on its territory that it doesn’t use. It’s been 7 years since in 2013 the transportation of crude oil through the pipeline from Solun to Skopje and there are no indications for its restarting. The explanation that was given for stopping the transportation was due to an outdated technology at the Okta refinery and is unprofitable processing, but it seems that the main reason for not using this infrastructure is because the Macedonian government and the Greek company “Hellenic Petroleum”, which through its sister companies has the majority ownership at the refinery and the pipeline, and they mostly communicate through lawsuits and calculations than using a common language of understanding.
Through its company “ELPET Balkaniki”, Hellenic Petroleum is the majority owner of Okta refinery and is an owner of 80% of the capital in the Greek-Macedonian company Vardax, that is managing the pipeline. The remaining 20% of the pipeline are owned by our country. During 2016, the Greek company announced that the pipeline is clean from the residues of the crude oil and that it is adapted for the transportation of diesel fuel. They accused the government that at that time was led by VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, that they won’t allow a permit for putting the pipeline into use even though it would be useful for the Macedonian citizens and the economy as it would secure safe and quality transportation of diesel which is by far the most used type of fuel in our country.
Hellenic Petroleum couldn’t find a common language with the government led by Nikola Gruevski regarding this issue and it appears they are having problems to find a common language with the current government led by Zoran Zaev. In the meantime, instead of an agreement between both sides, the Greek company has filed a lawsuit against this country demanding amends in the amount of 32 million euros because the country didn’t purchase the planned quantities of petroleum jelly that were determined with the purchase agreement for Okta Refinery.
For these problems, Meta has requested answers from Vardax headquarters in Thessaloniki. They replied that they cannot answer our questions because at the moment both sides are holding negotiations of crucial importance.
“Still, the operation of transportation of oil products through the Solun-Skopje pipeline represents a significant factor for achieving security in the supplying the neighboring country with fuel” state Varda.x
At the government has announced at the beginning of this year that negotiations are held but without firm deadlines and opinions about a possible solution.
Otherwise, the finding of a solution for this problem in between the lines is mentioned in the Prespa Agreement which was signed a year ago.
