Azerbaijan and Belarus have offered to supply Ukraine with up to 13 million tons of oil a year, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Boyko said in an interview with government paper Uryadovy Kuryer (Government Courier.)
Azerbaijan proposed deliveries of 8 million tons of oil a year via the Odessa-Brody pipeline, while Belarus proposed supplying 5 million tons of Venezuelan oil, the minister said.
The Ukrainian Odessa-Brody pipeline needs to transport at least 10 million tons of oil a year in order to operate efficiently, Boyko said.
Brody said the contracts could become "the economic basis for the work of Odessa-Brody pipeline."
The Odessa-Brody pipeline was built in 2001 to transport Caspian oil to Europe, bypassing Russia. The line was not used for several years due to a lack of connecting pipelines in Poland. Recently it has begun to be used in reverse mode to transport small volumes of oil.
KIEV, December 9 (RIA Novosti)