Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan has launched talks with Ukraine on the construction of a terminal for liquefied natural gas and its supplies, President Ilham Aliyev said after hosting his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich in Baku on Thursday, the Ukrainian president’s press service said.

President Aliyev told a joint news conference that the two countries signed a relevant agreement in Davos in January, referring to the memorandum on cooperation on the supplies of Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas to Ukraine.

"We are launching serious consultations on the topic today," Aliyev said, but added that a number of technical, commercial and legal issues are to be resolved to implement the project.

"During the discussions we witnessed a strong aspiration of our Ukrainian partners to materialize this project. It was initiated by the Ukrainian side," he said.

Aliyev said the two countries’ ministries and companies were negotiating the issue.

"I think that a result of these consultations will be specific proposals and a feasibility study. We consider this project a prospective one and on our end, we will be actively involved in efforts pertaining to its implementation."

The Azerbaijani leader termed the energy sector as an important area of bilateral cooperation, adding that Azerbaijan exported 1.5 million tons of oil to Ukraine in 2010.

A Ukrainian energy official said earlier this month that his country intends to buy up to 5 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas per year from 2015 and that Kyiv was ready to cooperate with Baku in building an LNG terminal at the Georgian port of Kulevi. The facility will be constructed under the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) project, which will allow to transport Azerbaijan’s liquefied gas to European markets through Georgia and Romania.

Ukraine aims to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies following several energy spats between the two neighbors in recent years.