Polish Senate Speaker Bogdan Borusewicz believes that the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline could be extended on to Gdansk in Poland.
He made a statement to that effect while meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in Kyiv on Tuesday, the Ukrainian premier’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian side has built its part of the pipeline, while Poland has unfortunately failed [to do so]. The fact that Russia may reduce oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline could increase the urgency of the Odesa-Brody- Gdansk project," the press service quoted Borusewicz as saying.
Taking into account the fact that Polish investors have bought an oil refinery in Lithuania, a branch pipeline could be built to link that oil refinery with the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk pipeline.
While addressing Borusewicz at the start of their meeting, Azarov said that issues of bilateral cooperation in the energy sector remain quite relevant, including the need to implement projects to extend the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline further to Gdansk. Moreover, the sides discussed cooperation in development and production of shale gas and the need to cooperate in the nuclear sector.
The leadership of Ukraine and Poland late in September expressed interest in boosting their efforts in the Odesa-Brody pipeline project.
In the middle of October 2007, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania, signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to design and build the Baku-Odesa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk oil pipeline. The project for the extension of the Odesa-Brody in the direction of Plock and Gdansk (Poland) is to be implemented in 2011.
