CONSTRUCTION of the trans-Balkan pipeline due to carry Russian oil to Greece via Bulgaria is expected to start later than planned, in October, 2009, and come on stream in 2011, a Bulgarian official said recently. After 14 years of negotiations and delays, the three countries agreed last year on building the $1-billion pipeline, which aims to by-pass the Turkish Bosporus Strait, and construction of the project was previously expected to start in late 2008 or early 2009. However, Bulgarian Regional Development and Construction Minister Asen Gagauzov is reported by the Reuters news agency as saying that the three countries were yet to pick a bank to help them raise funding, prepare a feasibility study and work out the project.