Azerbaijan, Baku, April 19 /Trend, E. Ismayilov /
Ukraine proposes launching the transit of Azerbaijani light crude oil to Europe starting next year, the Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Ministry's Oil, Gas, Peat, Oil-refining Industry and Alternative Fuels Department Director Igor Kiryushin said.
He said that currently Azerbaijani oil is transported through Ukraine's territory to Belarus for processing at the Mozyr oil refinery. These supplies are transferred via the Odessa-Brody pipeline within the swap-operations between Azerbaijan, Belarus and Venezuela.
Starting next year, Ukraine intends to supply Azerbaijani oil to European consumers, Kiryushin said.
A joint meeting of the Azerbaijani-Ukrainian working group on cooperation in the energy sector started today in Baku. The meeting pursues the cooperation on supply of Azerbaijani light oil from the Caspian region to Ukraine and transferring it through Ukraine to a third country, as well as projects of the Eurasian oil transportation corridor, Sarmatia, AGRI.
Sarmatia was created on July 12, 2004, by Ukrtransnafta and the Polish company PERN Przyjazn for attracting investment for the design and completion of the Odessa-Brody pipeline to Plotsk. Sarmatia was created under an oil transportation project via the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk-Plotsk route.
The Odessa-Brody oil transportation project sought to diversify oil supplies to Ukrainian refineries and develop the country's transit potential. The pipeline's construction was completed in May 2002. Its trunk has a length of 674 kilometers, with a pipe diameter of 1,020 millimeters.
The capacity of the pipeline and the terminal provide 9-14 million tons per year during the first stage.
Sarmatia's participants include SOCAR, the Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation Ltd. (GOGC), Ukrainian Ukrtransnafta, Polish Przedsiebiorstwo Eksploatacji Rurociagow Naftowych Przyjazn SA and Lithuanian AB Klaipedos Nafta with equity participation of 24.75 percent of key players and one percent in the Lithuanian company.