Energy Headlines

Oleh Dubyna, the head of the state-owned Naftohaz Ukrayiny, told journalists in Kyiv on May 7 that the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline will start pumping oil from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to Brody "by the end of the first half of 2008," Interfax-Ukraine reported. Dubyna added that "485,000 tons of light crude will be bought to use the pipeline in the other direction." The pipeline, built by Ukraine in 2002, was originally intended as part of a project to transport Caspian Sea crude to the Polish port of Gdansk and on to other points in Europe. But in 2004, the Ukrainian government gave permission for the Russian-British TNK-BP holding to use the Odesa-Brody pipeline to transport Russian oil in the opposite direction. Poland has repeatedly promised to help Ukraine use the pipeline according to its original intention but progress on the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk project has been extremely slow because of its estimated cost of $2 billion and doubts whether oil shipped via this route can compete with Russian oil transported to markets through pipelines without sea transport.

Source: RADIO FREE EUROPE