Companies sign initial agreements with Golden Gate

Golden Gate, a company created to build and maintain an oil pipeline from Brody in Ukraine to Plock signed an agreement on cooperation with Investgas and Gazoprojekt to build the pipeline. The whole undertaking will probably cost around $500 million. "On August 1, we signed an initial agreement with Investgas, belonging to Energopol and Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG). Our partner will concentrate mainly on procuring terrain and technical supervision. A similar agreement was also signed with Gazoprojekt from Wroclaw," said Pawel Holownia, president of Golden Gate. Final and binding contracts will be signed in a few months, "Once the company begins operations. First we have to know who will buy the oil and secure financing for the project," said Eugeniusz Wawrzyniak, president of Investgas. The Ukrainian 670 kilometer part of the pipeline has been managed and owned by Ukrtransnafta. "The Ukrainians are negotiating with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on obtaining finance to purchase part of the oil as the pipeline requires pumping in 500,000 tons of oil to function. Recently an agreement has been signed with Czech Rafinerska for 400,000 tons of oil. We also expect to deliver oil to Hungary, Slovakia and Austria," said Cezary Filipowicz, deputy president of Golden Gate. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) P.W.