The proposal was made by the countries interested in the project, and will be analysed by experts, the Italian official added. An inter-state committee has now been created for this, including representatives from Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. The committee recently adopted a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the project, and this is expected to be formally signed on 21 March. The establishment of a project-development company is expected to follow this. "My visit here now proves Italy's interest to invest in Romania," said Scajola at a press conference held at the Italian Embassy in Bucharest during his recent visit to the country. The proposed 1370-km long, 660,000brl/d, Constanta-Trieste pipeline will allow crude oil from Kazakhstan to be shipped via Novorossiisk on the Black Sea to the Romanian port of Constanta, from where it will be piped to Italy across the Balkan Peninsula. The pipeline, estimated to cost $900m to construct, will be used mostly to provide oil to the countries along the route, and will incorporate existing pipelines connecting Constanta with ten refineries. Several alternatives exist for the route, with a proposed northern route transiting southern Hungary and central Slovenia before terminating at Italy's oil terminal of Trieste. From there, the pipeline would be linked with the Trans-Alpine Pipeline (TAP), which will carry the oil onwards to customers in Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The southern route for the pipeline, sometimes known as the South-East European Line (SEEL), would transport the Caspian oil from Constanta via a similar route to the northern one, although passing through Yugoslavia and an intermediate transit point at Croatia's Adriatic port of Omisalj before crossing Slovenia and ending at Trieste. The SEEL pipeline also would link to the TAP to deliver oil to Central Europe. Feasibility studies have shown that both proposed Constanta routes are viable, but neither pipeline has moved to the construction stage yet. In September 2002, officials from Romania, Serbia, and Croatia, signed an agreement on the SEEL pipeline, but financing for the southern route remains a problem, as construction is expected to cost around $ 1bn despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of the pipeline will be made up of existing pipelines. The Serbian section is expected to account for nearly 80% of the budget, and Romanian officials have said that attracting financing for the 400-km section in their country will be easier since the route will traverse accessible terrain. In addition to serving as a transit point for Caspian oil, Romania is hoping to offload some Caspian crude at Constanta and deliver it to its own refineries in order to offset the country's declining domestic production. Romania and Kazakh officials already have an agreement to refine Kazakh crude oil at Romanian refineries, and Romania hopes to supply its own domestic market as well as transport refined products to Europe via barges on the Danube-Main-Rhine link. Romania also could use its own distribution network to transport refined products into other European lines.