Ukraine Intends to Present Odesa-Brody Pipeline in Kazakhstan

“Ukraine attaches priority to cooperation with Kazakhstan in a situation when international terrorism is on the rise,” President Leonid Kuchma stated during his three-day visit to Astana. Kazakhstan has invited Ukraine to participate as an observer in the summit of the Council for Interaction and Confidence Building in Asia member-states to be held in Almaty this November. Kyiv and Astana are both interested in establishing a free trade zone within the CIS, Ukraine’s President emphasized. Leonid Kuchma and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed their respective governments to hold negotiations on the gradual abolition of exceptions from free trade regime between Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The two sides also signed an intergovernmental agreement on the mutual recognition and equivalence of education documents, scientific degrees and academic titles.

What can bring tangible results for Ukraine is the contract on selling Ukrainian An-74 cargo planes and An-140 cargo-passenger planes to Kazakhstan. Ukrainian aircraft designers will take part in the modernization of Kazakhstan’s air fleet. Ukrainian Minister of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev announced that both countries signed a protocol of intent on aircraft sales and the establishment of a joint venture for the production and modernization of airplane and helicopter engines. Kazakh farmers are also interested in Ukrainian projects and aid because it is time to modernize the An-2 and An-3 planes still popular in Kazakh agriculture. According to Mr. Hureyev, it remains unknown how many items will have to be replaced in the Kazakhstan air fleet. The frequently quoted figure is fifty airplanes, Interfax reports.

Motor Sich is ready to explore the possibility of producing engines to be used at Kazakh natural gas pump sites. The oil and gas complex is, of course, the most attractive item in Kyiv-Astana cooperation. In particular, priority is being attached to involving Kazakh companies in participation in the international consortium to be created for operating the Odesa-Brody pipeline designed for transporting Caspian oil to Western Europe. According to Oleh Dubyna, First Vice Premier of Ukraine, the negotiators discussed presentation of the Odesa-Brody pipeline to Kazakh oil companies, UNIAN reports. Mr. Dubyna also stated that Ukraine would transport 8.7 million tons of Kazakh oil this year. The problem of the transit cost remains to be solved. “The main task today is to fill the Odesa-Brody pipeline with oil,” Dubyna stressed. As is known, Kazakhstan is the second largest (after Russia) supplier of oil to Ukraine. Last year, Ukrainian oil refineries received about two million tons of Kazakh oil. Minister Hureyev also believes that Ukraine and Kazakhstan should consider cooperation in shipbuilding, “because a tanker fleet is indispensable for supplying oil products.”