Poland confirms interest in building oil pipeline to Ukraine
The project to build an oil pipeline connecting the ports of Odesa and Gdansk "has a chance of being implemented," the newly appointed Polish ambassador to Ukraine, Jarosław Guzy, said in an interview with Mind.
The pipeline in question would run from Brody in Lviv Oblast to a large oil collection point in the village of Adamowo-Zastava in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, where Poland's Druzhba pipeline begins.
The construction is planned with the participation of the Polish energy group Orlen, according to the ambassador.
Earlier in March, Ukrnafta reported that the construction of the Brody – Adamowo-Zastawa pipeline could move forward after a meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish intergovernmental commission.
The pipeline is expected to be completed within two to three years.
The project would allow for the transportation of oil in both reverse and forward directions – from Gdańsk through Płock and Adamowo-Zastava to Brody and back – from Brody to Adamowo-Zastava. This would allow Ukraine to receive oil from the Baltic Sea, and for Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary – oil from the Black Sea.
Between 1996 and 2001, Ukraine built an oil pipeline between Odesa and Brody, where it was connected to the Druzhba pipeline. It was planned that Odesa-Brody would continue to the Polish cities of Płock and Gdańsk, but the Polish company PERN Przyjaźń refused to finance the extension.
The pipeline was designed to transport Caspian and Kazakh oil from the Pivdennyi Port near Odesa to oil refineries in Eastern and Central Europe, and further to Northern Europe via the port of Gdańsk, bypassing the Turkish Straits.
Until 2004, the pipeline was idle due to a lack of raw materials, and then it was used by Russian companies in reverse mode (toward the Pivdennyi Terminal). In 2010, Russian companies stopped supplying oil.
In 2010-2011, Belarus briefly used the pipeline to import Venezuelan and Azerbaijani oil to its refineries. After that, it became idle again.
