Five countries to build joint oil pipeline

Five countries are expected to sign in January an agreement to build an oil pipeline from Romania to Italy.

It is the latest move in the intensely competitive and politically fraught battle over who controls, and who benefits from, the Caspian’s growing oil production.

..It would reduce European dependence on Middle Eastern oil, would be outside Russian control and would help to alleviate some of the congestion in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, analysts said.

But they warned that the pipeline faced several competitors and that an agreement could still be scuttled by one of the five states. If the signing ceremony proceeds, the next big hurdle will be reaching agreement on the pipeline tariffs.

Financial Times