03.07.03

Ukraine ready to increase transit of Kazakh gas to 25 bcm by 2008

Ukraine plans to increase transportation of gas from Kazakhstan to 25 billion cubic meters per annum by 2008, Ukrainian Energy Minister Sergei Yermilov said during the conference Kazakh Oil and Gas, which is being held in London on June 1-2.

Yermilov also said that this year an agreement should be signed on annual transportation from Kazakhstan of 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas, the BBC's Ukrainian service reports.

The minister noted that Ukraine proposes to transport up to 9 million tonnes of Caspian oil, not blended with any other, through the Odessa-Brody pipeline.

Yermilov is participating in the conference in London at the invitation of Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resource Minister Vladimir Shkolnik.

The press service at the Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry told Interfax that during the conference Yermilov and Shkolnik held talks, in which Ukrainian Ambassador to Britain Igor Mityukov participated, at which the sides agreed to cooperate further in the fuel and energy complex.

Active discussion is currently underway on options for the use of the Odessa-Brody pipeline. In particular, the heads of six Russian oil companies have sent letters to the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers with a request to support the reverse use of the Odessa-Brody pipeline to export 9 million tonnes of oil per annum. At the same time the Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry is proposing the forward use of the pipeline to transport Caspian oil.

(Interfax)