The pipeline, running from Ukraine's Black Sea coast to Brody, near the Polish border, was initially set to pump Caspian oil to Central Europe, but has instead been used "in reverse mode" since 2004 to transport Russian crude south to the Mediterranean.
The ministry, citing Ukrainian deputy prime minister Andrei Klyuev, said: "A consortium of suppliers involving Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Russian producers needs to be formed with resource consumers, which would be Poland and probably the United States."
Experts of the joint Ukrainian-Kazakh intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation held a working session in Kiev, Ukraine's capital, on December 9-11. The sides discussed cooperation in the fuel and energy sector, in particular the Odessa-Brody pipeline.
Ukraine is a major transit route for oil exported to European markets, mainly by Russia. The country wants to improve its position as a transit nation and reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
At a mid-November meeting in Kiev Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski made the extension of the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline to Poland a cooperation priority.
Yushchenko said earlier Kiev is poised for talks on oil deliveries to Europe, and is ready to attract such oil-rich Caspian states as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and that financial issues still need to be coordinated to complete the project.
