Ukraine hopes to reach agreement on the creation of a trilateral consortium to manage the Ukrainian gas transport system, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko has said.
"The model of a trilateral consortium, which is the basis of these negotiations, is the most suitable," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"Our negotiations on [gas] transit are based on two things. We must have guarantees of gas transit to Europe from our Russian partners, and we must get Europe to give money for the reconstruction of the gas transportation system," Boiko said.
Ukraine has signed a memorandum with European banks in which the latter pledged to provide funds for modernizing the system. However, Ukraine has still not received a clear reply about when the money will be released, the minister said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has started putting its own money into the system’s overhaul, he said.
