2007年VOA标准英语-Race to Build Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline

By Barry Wood
Washington, DC
08 January 2007
 
watch Balkan Pipeline¹ report

 
Map of Balkan pipelines²
A race is underway in the Balkans to build an oil export pipeline that bypasses the Turkish Straits.  One proposed line would go from Bulgaria to Albania, a second between Bulgaria and Greece, and a third, longer route from Romania to Italy. Barry Wood has more on the contest to be first to build an oil export pipeline across southeastern Europe.

The crowded Turkish straits cannot accommodate more oil tankers³. With prices high and Kazakhstan oil exports growing, backers of the competing pipelines are scrambling⁴ for advantage.

 
Ted⁵ Ferguson
Ted Ferguson heads the consortium to build the AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria-Oil) line 850 kilometers from Bulgaria west to Albania. He says, "We've got, I would say, six to 18 months to get things together and start construction."

New York investment banker Richard Ennis is promoting the rival Romanian route, the Pan European Oil Pipeline -- PEOP -- that would extend 1300 kilometers from Romania west through Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia to Italy. It would cost more than AMBO but would carry twice as much oil.

Ennis concedes that only one of the rival pipelines may be built. "The pipeline that gets built first is going to win.  And while some of the alternatives may be inferior to PEOP, if they get built first, they'll be the winner."

Gligor Toskovic, Macedonia's minister for foreign investment and a former AMBO official is confident that AMBO will win. All that's missing, he says, is the financial commitment of an oil company. "All the Bosporus proposals require an oil company. No one has one yet, despite what certain media might say. We'll be the first."

But a third route, the cheaper and shorter Bulgaria to Greece pipeline may be closest to securing financial backing. This 280 kilometer line is backed by Greece and Russia, which through Gazprom would own 51 percent of the pipeline.

Bulgaria's foreign minister,  Ivailo Kalfin, says both the pipeline to Greece and the one to Albania are needed. "I think both pipelines are absolutely realizable. They're very important for Bulgaria. Bulgaria is working very hard for them."

Former oil company executive Frank Verrastro says pipelines themselves are seldom profitable. That, he says, is why it is difficult to get them built, particularly when they transit⁶ more than one country. "The more stockholders and countries involved, exponentially [it] makes the project more difficult and time consuming."

At least one of the rival oil pipelines is likely to be built. But the winner of the race is still in doubt.

1 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

2 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

3 tankers   

运送大量液体或气体的轮船[卡车]( tanker的名词复数 )； 油轮； 罐车； 油槽车

参考例句：

• They should stop offloading waste from oil tankers into the sea. 他们应当停止从油轮上往海里倾倒废弃物。
• The harbour admits large tankers and freighters. 这个港口容得下巨型油船和货轮。

4 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

6 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。