Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova are all net oil importers, depending primarily on Russia for most of their supply. Romania has the largest oil reserves in Central and Eastern Europe and is a mature oil producing country. Neither Bulgaria nor Moldova produces significant quantities of crude oil. All of these countries are important transit countries for oil and natural gas from the Former Soviet Union.

Located on the western shores of the Black Sea, a major route for world oil exports, the countries of Southeastern Europe hope to grow as transit centers, carrying Russian and Caspian Sea Region oil to market in Europe. Several pipelines are currently in various stages of construction and development. Because oil exports from the Caspian Sea region are projected to increase rapidly in the next decade, several oil pipeline proposals to bypass Turkey's increasingly congested Bosporus and Dardanelles straits (see map) are under consideration or in development. The following are projects passing through Southeast Europe, although there are other projects proposed that would relieve tanker traffic such as reversal of the Brody-Odessa pipeline, the Adria pipeline/Druzhba integration project , and the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline.

The 570-mile, 750,000-barrel-per-day (bbl/d) Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria (AMBO) pipeline will connect the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas with the Albanian Adriatic port of Vlore, allowing seaborne oil exports from Russia and the Caspian Sea region to flow overland between the Black Sea and the Adriatic. In December 2004, AMBO announced that front-end engineering and design (FEED) on the $1.5-billion pipeline would be completed in early 2005, following the December 28, 2004 signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) by ministers from Bulgaria, Albania, and Macedonia. Construction is expected to begin in September 2006 and to be completed by 2008-2009.

In January 1997, Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia agreed to build the $700-million Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline linking the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas with Alexandroupolis on the Mediterranean coast of Greece (see map). As originally conceived, the proposed 178-mile underground pipeline would allow Russia to export oil (up to 300,000 bbl/d) via the Black Sea, bypassing the Bosporus. The project was stalled for several years by a wide range of technical and economic issues. Although Russia, Greece, and Bulgaria signed a memorandum on the commencement of pipeline construction in November 2004, the countries did not complete an MOU by the end of the year due to Russian's support of AMBO as an alternative to the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline. Greece continued to lobby for construction of the pipeline, and the final MOU was signed in April 2005. In 2006, Russia was granted a 51 percent stake in the pipeline project. In response, the Bulgarian state-controlled gas monopoly Bulgaraz and the Universal Terminal Bourgas (UTB) proposed to co-create a Bulgarian corporation that will control a minimum 24.5 percent of the remaining 49 percent of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. Greek candidates have created the Thraki company for the purposes of the project, but it is as yet unclear whether Greece will accept the new conditions, as the project originally stated in the MOU that the three partners would share equal 33 percent stakes in the pipeline.

The Constanta-Trieste oil pipeline proposal entails development of a pipeline connecting the existing Romanian Black Sea Port of Constanta with Italy's Adriatic port city of Trieste. The Romanian-proposed crude oil pipeline, also known as the Pan-European Oil Pipeline, will extend across Romania to the Serbian town of Pancevo where it will connect to an existing branch of the Adria pipeline that runs from Pancevo to Trieste. At Trieste, the pipeline will connect with the Trans Alpine Pipeline (TAP) that connects northern Italy with Austria and Germany. In May 2006, ministers from five countries endorsed a MOU to start the $2.3 billion project. The deal confirms the participation of Italy and Slovenia with existing partners Serbia-Montenegro, Romania and Croatia on the 870-mile pipeline. The largest portion of the pipeline (400 miles) will be in Romania, which will incur $1.2-2.1 billion of the total project costs. The capacity of the pipeline will be between 800,000-1.8 million bbl/d and would be operational by 2011-2012.

According to the 2006 Oil and Gas Journal, Romania has estimated reserves of 956 million barrels of oil. In 2005, the country domestically produced roughly 115,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of its 241,000 bbl/d of consumption. Romania dominates Southeastern Europe's downstream petroleum industry, with ten of the region's eleven refineries. Because its refining capacity far exceeds domestic demand, Romania exports a wide range of oil products and petrochemicals.

Romania recently privatized several refineries, including Petrotel (majority owned by Russia's LUKoil) and Petromidia (controlled by Dutch Rompetrol Group). LUKoil restarted the 104,000-bbl/d Petrotel refinery in October 2004, after two years of necessary upgrades to meet EU fuel standards. In 2006, Romanian oil company Rompetrol announced that it will invest more than $140 million in its Petromedia refinery over the next two years in order to increase its capacity 38 percent from its current capacity of 100,000 bbl/d. In addition, it will improve its fuel quality and environmental standards to meet European standards. Petrom, Romania’s largest oil group, is currently funding the modernization of the Arpechim and Petrobarzi refineries with planned investment reaching $1.2 billion by 2010. Petrom is installing a new vacuum distillate hydro-treating unit at Arpechim that will reduce the sulfur content in gasoline, diesel and heavy fuels in line with EU standards.

In December 2004, the Romanian government finalized the $1.5 billion sale of a 51 percent stake in Petrom to Austria's OMV. Petrom accounts for the majority of all Romanian oil production at approximately 78,000 bbl/d of oil in 2005. OMV announced in January 2006 that it would be transferring its downstream business in Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia and Montenegro to its new Petrom subsidiary.

In September 2004, Rompetrol announced plans to spend $9 million over three years for exploration in the Zegujani (1,100 sq miles) and Satu Mare (1,800 sq miles) blocks in western Romania. After an initial assessment, Rompetrol has identified several prospective deposits with estimated reserves of 10-50 million barrels of oil equivalent. While the blocks appear to contain natural gas, Rompetrol has not ruled out the future discovery of commercial-grade crude oil reserves. Plans include spending an additional $12 million if crude oil reserves prove to be commercially recoverable.

Romania imports crude oil via the Black Sea through two major ports, Constanta and Tulcea, giving the country the capability to be a major energy transport point. Because of its perceived strategic importance, the Romanian government has no plans to privatize Conpet, the state-owned oil transport company, which operates the national pipeline system.

According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) Bulgaria had 15 million barrels of proven oil reserves in 2006. The country produced 3,000 bbl/d and consumed 180,000 bbl/d in 2005.

Bulgaria's geographic location on the Black Sea gives it the ability to serve as a transit route for Caspian Sea oil exports headed to European refineries, as well as a transit point for Russian natural gas exports to Turkey. Oil is imported through Bulgaria's main port at Burgas, where both the oil terminal and refinery are connected by pipeline to several Bulgarian cities.

Bulgarian oil and natural gas exploration occurs predominately in the northern part of the country and the Black Sea. In January 2005, the Bulgarian government offered the offshore Shabla block in the northern Black Sea shelf under a three-year exploration license. Potential reserves are expected at 200 million barrels. In 2006, the Bulgarian government extended the permit of the Pleven-based Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Company by two years to explore for oil and gas in the Pleven region of northern Bulgaria. Melrose Resources (Melrose) began its latest offshore Bulgarian oil and gas search in September 2004. In 2006, Melrose recieved an extension of its permit for the offshore block Emine, and also signed a 25-year concession agreement to develop the Galata offshore field, which has estimated reserves of 53 Bcf.

Bulgaria’s biggest oil refiner, Lukoil’s Neftochim, has a nameplate capacity of 140,000 bbl/d. The facility processed roughly 129,000 bbl/d of crude in 2005, up 13.7 percent from 2004. The company invested $62 million in reconstructing and upgrading its assets and in the construction of new facilities in 2005, in addition to $45 million invested the previous year. Lukoil Neftochim recently began producing fuels under the European emission standards Euro 3 and plans to upgrade its facilities to the more difficult Euro 4 standards. Lukoil has stated that it will invest around $1.0 billion in the development of its oil refinery and retail network in Bulgaria until 2011.

Moldova imports virtually all the petroleum products it needs. Moldova’s reserves are estimated at 15 million barrels. In February 2005, Azerbaijan's AS-Petrol Company signed a 99-year concession contract that called for the company to invest $250 million on the Giurgiulesti Oil Terminal in southern Moldova on the Danube River and construct an oil refinery and about 50 filling stations in Moldova. In July 2005, the Moldovan fuel trader AS-Petrol opened the $4.0 million oil refinery to process domestic crude. The oil refinery is the first in the country and is located in the southern town of Comrat. The refinery, which has a processing capacity of 600 bbl/d, processes crude oil extracted from a field in the southern region of Valeni, one of the country’s two oil fields.