Oil: Global first of the Thessaloniki – Skopje pipeline

Helleniq Energy’s Thessaloniki-Skopje oil pipeline will be a world first when it reopens.

It will be the first in the world to transport petroleum products and not fuel oil.

This is what Helleniq Energy officials say, referring to the pipeline that connects the group’s refinery in Thessaloniki with OKTA’s storage facilities in the area of the capital of North Macedonia.

Risky stunts in the energy markets

The pipeline will carry diesel cutting transportation costs and providing competitive prices for consumers in the neighboring country.

Arbitral tribunal

The infrastructure is ready to operate again after nine years when in 2013 Helleniq Energy had decided to stop its operation which was used to transport quantities of fuel oil. In 2016, the issue of opening the valve of the oil pipeline came back, however, legal disputes are pending between the Greek group and the state of North Macedonia. According to information, Helleniq Energy won an arbitration court, which awarded the group 24 million euros.

Helleniq Energy is willing to allocate part of the amount to the re-operation of the pipeline.

Restart

Recently, it became known from North Macedonian press reports that VARDAX, which is 80% owned by the Greek energy group and 20% by the state-owned Naftovod, filed an application for the re-issuance of the oil pipeline’s operating license. The application was submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission.

The 213.5 km long Thessaloniki-Skopje pipeline, with a nominal product pipeline diameter of 16 inches and a transport capacity of 2.5 million tons of oil from Helleniq Energy’s refinery in Thessaloniki to the former OKTA refinery in Skopje.

The efforts

The issue of the reopening of the Thessaloniki-Skopje oil pipeline was also discussed during the tripartite meeting of Greece, then fYROM and the US during the visit of then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020.

Efforts to open it have been started since 2016-2017.

As is known, the pipeline has been closed since 2013, when Hellenic Petroleum assessed that its operation was unprofitable. It is recalled that Helleniq Energy legally claims from North Macedonia, and has been justified, payment of compensation, due to non-compliance with the clause of purchase of strictly prescribed quantities of fuel by the Greek company in the period 2008-2011.

The oil pipeline was built in 2002, in order to connect the refineries of Thessaloniki with the refinery of the OKTA company in Skopje, which was acquired by Hellenic Petroleum in 1998.

In the meantime, the pipeline has been cleaned – as it is no longer used for the transport of crude oil – and in the event of its reopening, it will transport finished petroleum products to North Macedonia.