Ukraine to invite oil majors to build new gas pipelines: report

Kiev (Platts)--13Feb2006

Ukraine will invite major international oil and gas companies to
participate in a joint venture aimed at building new natural gas pipelines in
Ukraine, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said. 
     "We will suggest the European Union, all foreign investors to join
construction of new capacities," Yekhanurov said in remarks aired by UT-1
state-owned television Monday. "These capacities will eventually become their
property."
     The plan is apparently aimed at winning support from the EU towards
building new pipelines in Ukraine rather than building an expensive gas supply
route under the Baltic Sea that had been pushed by Russia, analysts said.
     Ukraine will probably suggest German and French companies to join the
joint venture, known as the International Gas Consortium, which had been
created by Russia and Ukraine in 2002, analysts said.
     The joint venture has been for years preparing to start construction of a
240-km Bohorodchany-Uzhgorod gas pipeline capable of moving 19-bil cu m/year
of gas. 
     The pipeline is supposed to become a part of a bigger route,
Uzhgorod-Novopskov, which would stretch from western to eastern borders of
Ukraine and could be further extended to natural gas-rich Central Asia.

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