Ukraine keen on imports of Azeri gas
Ukraine intends to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan,
with the country's Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Boiko saying Kyiv
could purchase up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas from the
resource-rich South Caucasus republic once it has joined a project
on transporting Azerbaijani gas to Romania and Bulgaria through the
Black Sea.
"We are counting on Ukraine buying 5 billion cubic meters of gas in the first stage and another five in the second, for a total of 10 billion cubic meters of gas", Boiko said.
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal will be built in Ukraine for the purpose. According to preliminary estimates, construction operations will cost $1 billion. Experts expect construction of the terminal to last seven to eight years.
The European Union intends to allocate $3 billion to Ukraine under the project. The remaining amount will be spent on other infrastructure projects.
Minister Boiko said talks had been held with Azerbaijan, which is building an LNG terminal in the Georgian port of Kulevi in cooperation with Romania and Bulgaria. Ukraine will purchase a certain volume of liquefied gas and further use it to supply the gas terminal in the Ukrainian town of Odessa at the Black Sea. Along with domestic consumption, fuel could be exported from there to other countries.
Some analysts say that gas exports to Ukraine were one of the issues that topped the agenda of a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich held on the sidelines of an event on cooperation and confidence-building in Asia that recently took place in Istanbul.
Compressed gas is to be transported through the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnection project, known as AGRI. The project envisions building a plant or a liquefied natural gas export terminal over two to three years in Georgia and simultaneously another such terminal in the Romanian port of Constanta. Another option is delivering liquefied gas by vessels to Romania, which will be used both for domestic consumption and for further exports to European markets. The project's capacity is expected to be 7 billion cubic meters of gas a year, of which Romania is expected to receive 2 billion cubic meters annually.
"We are counting on Ukraine buying 5 billion cubic meters of gas in the first stage and another five in the second, for a total of 10 billion cubic meters of gas", Boiko said.
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal will be built in Ukraine for the purpose. According to preliminary estimates, construction operations will cost $1 billion. Experts expect construction of the terminal to last seven to eight years.
The European Union intends to allocate $3 billion to Ukraine under the project. The remaining amount will be spent on other infrastructure projects.
Minister Boiko said talks had been held with Azerbaijan, which is building an LNG terminal in the Georgian port of Kulevi in cooperation with Romania and Bulgaria. Ukraine will purchase a certain volume of liquefied gas and further use it to supply the gas terminal in the Ukrainian town of Odessa at the Black Sea. Along with domestic consumption, fuel could be exported from there to other countries.
Some analysts say that gas exports to Ukraine were one of the issues that topped the agenda of a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich held on the sidelines of an event on cooperation and confidence-building in Asia that recently took place in Istanbul.
Compressed gas is to be transported through the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnection project, known as AGRI. The project envisions building a plant or a liquefied natural gas export terminal over two to three years in Georgia and simultaneously another such terminal in the Romanian port of Constanta. Another option is delivering liquefied gas by vessels to Romania, which will be used both for domestic consumption and for further exports to European markets. The project's capacity is expected to be 7 billion cubic meters of gas a year, of which Romania is expected to receive 2 billion cubic meters annually.
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