Azernews.Az

KIEV – The president of Kazakhstan is expected to discuss with his Ukrainian counterpart on Tuesday the resumption of Kazakh oil transit via Ukraine to Europe.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev begins on Tuesday his two-day official visit to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and although the issue of oil transit was not included in the official agenda of the visit, this information was earlier confirmed by the Kazakh ambassador to Ukraine and later by Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Ministry.

Last February Kazakh oil transport company KazTransOil announced that it would transit crude oil to Europe via Poland instead of Ukraine.

The company said that the Ukrainian oil transport company Ukrtransnafta, which had pumped oil to Europe through the southern leg of the Druzhba pipeline network, broke an agreement with the Kazakh company starting from January 26.

President Nazarbayev is also expected to discuss with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych issues concerning cooperation in space, education, science, agriculture and nuclear energy.

During a meeting in Kiev in March, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev that his country was interested in buying natural gas from Kazakhstan. In April, Yanukovych said Ukraine was ready to take part in developing gas deposits in Kazakhstan.