Earlier, Ukrainian Vice Premier Andrei Klyuyev reported that the cost of laying a 500 km long branch of an oil pipeline through the Polish territory will require half a billion dollars. According to him, the creation of the joint venture would the first stage in building the oil transportation corridor for the delivery of the Caspian oil to European countries.
When this stage is completed the countries will hold negotiations on continuing the construction of the pipeline for it to reach the city of Gdansk on the Baltic Sea.
On November 26, 2003, Ukraine and Poland signed in Brussels an inter-governmental agreement on the integration of the Ukrainian Odessa-Brody oil pipeline into the Polish oil transportation system.
The construction of the 674 km long Ukrainian section of the Odessa -Brody pipeline with a throughput capacity of 9-14.5 million tons a year was completed in May 2001. Its capacity is expected to be increased to reach 40-45 million tons a year. Initially, the pipeline was meant for delivering the Caspian oil to Europe. For this, the crude oil should be pumped by the oil pipeline Tengiz (Kazakhstan) - Novorossiisk (Russia) or Baku (Azerbaijan) - Supsa (Georgia), and then delivered by tankers on the Black Sea to already built Odessa terminal.
Today, its use in the direction of Brody-Odessa for pumping the Russian oil from the pipeline Druzhba to the Odessa terminal with the subsequent transportation by tankers to the place of destination is being considered.
The final decision will be made by the Ukrainian government in the near future.
