Polish-Ukraine pipeline discussed at Economic Summit

The project of the second line of the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk crude oil pipeline was presented at the end of the Fifth Poland-Ukraine Economic Summit in Rzeszow on Friday. The capacity of the Polish section will be around 25 million tones of oil annually. The project phase is expected to be finished this year and next year talks will be launched with oil companies which want to pump oil from the Caspian Sea. Poland is represented by Miedzynarodowe Towarzystwo Naftowe Golden Gate, consisting of Poland-based Energopol, Prochem, Gaskon as well as US and Ukrainian companies. Golden Gate president Pawel Holownia told Rzeczpospolita daily that this is an entirely commercial enterprise which will be financed by banks. The cost of the Polish section of the pipeline from Brody in Ukraine to Plock has been estimated at euro 520 million, euro 430 million on the Polish side and euro 90 million on the Ukrainian. The oil from Plock to Gdansk will flow through the already existing pipeline. The reserves of crude oil in the Caspian Sea are es timated at tens of billion of tons. Poland's president Aleksander Kwas niewski who participated in the summit along with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma stressed that the pipeline is a crucial point in Polish- Ukrainian relations and has full political support as Poland needs to diversify it's supplies of crude oil. The first Caspian oil should flow to Poland in the middle of 2006. (Rzeczpospolita, June 22-23, p. B2) A.Z.