Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters that Russia had invited the Kazakh state oil firm Kazmunaigaz to join the project, which also involves Greece and Bulgaria. “We are currently studying the issue. The talk may be about our company becoming a pipeline shareholder,” Nazarbayev said after meeting Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Kazakhstan plans to triple its oil output to 3MMbrl/d by 2015, and is looking for new export routes. Its current exports reach world markets via a pipeline to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, led by US ChevronTexaco, and through Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft. Russian private oil firms heavily criticize Transneft for giving Kazakhstan too much space in its export pipelines, squeezing-out domestic producers, while Turkey is expected to gradually make cargo shipments via its Straits more strict. The proposed 256-km long trans-Balkan pipeline could help ease the Black Sea congestion, as it would by-pass the Bosporus and take up to 700,000brl/d of Russian oil from the west Black Sea Bulgarian port of Burgas to the NE Greek city of Alexandroupolis. The project has been put on hold for more than eight years as Russia, Greece, and Bulgaria have been unable to agree on the division of shareholdings. However, last year, the three states agreed on an equal three-way division of ownership, but the plan is still dormant as Russia’s Transneft has been busy expanding other pipeline routes.