Moldova opens 38 million dollar oil terminal on Danube

Oct 26, 2006, 14:12 GMT

Chisinau - Moldova on Thursday opened a 38 million dollar oil terminal on the Danube River, for the first time linking the land-locked country with international ship traffic.

The Free Port Dzhurdzhulesht is located at the southern tip of the former Soviet republic.

'This will enable our country to receive oil shipments from abroad,' said Moldova President Vladimir Voronin at an opening ceremony of the port.

The facility will be operational 'in coming months' with final testing planned for the next sixty days, said Thomas Moser, the project's chief contractor, according to an Infotag news agency report.

Moldova's government completed the installation in cooperation with the Azerbaijan energy company Azpetrol for an estimated total cost of 38 million dollars, with 27 million dollars raised by the Azerbaijan firm.

Construction began in 1996 and was to have been completed in 1999, but work stopped that year due to lack of funding from the cash- strapped Moldovan government. Azpetrol joined the project in 2005.

Environmental activists have charged the terminal, located in the heart of Europe's largest wetland the Danube delta, threatens the local environment.

Voronin in past statements has said the terminal is safe and that its operation will not affect wildlife.

Moldova in the past had received all its oil needs from Russia, but Chisinau and Moscow in recent months have seen a deterioration of relations.

Russia this summer banned wine imports from Moldova, reducing the turnover of Moldova's largest export industry by 40 per cent overnight.

Russian officials justified the ban citing alleged low quality of some Moldovan wines. Moldovan officials including Voronin have argued their country was targeted by the Kremlin for economic pressure because of Chisinau's announced plans to try and join NATO and the European Union.

Landlocked after gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova gained access to the land used to build the Dzhurdzhulesht terminal from a diplomatic deal with Ukraine.

Ukraine in exchange received a sliver of Moldovan land allowing direct road traffic between Romania and the south Ukraine city Odessa.