Russia to boost crude oil thru pipelines

Russia has agreed to boost supplies of its crude via Ukrainian oil pipelines next year in a move that may further strengthen its position as the dominant energy supplier to European markets.

The agreement, reached Thursday by the countries’ top energy officials in Moscow, may hamper Ukraine’s earlier commitments to start shipments of alternative Caspian Sea crude via the same pipelines to Europe.
The project, discussed between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his Polish counterpart Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Kiev last week, is seen as the first step in starting massive supplies of The latest agreements may postpone plans between Ukraine and Poland to work together to try to start shipments of Caspian Sea crude via Odessa-to-Brody to an oil refinery in the Czech Republic.

Caspian Sea to markets in the European Union, a plan that would help the E.U. to cut its dependence on Russian oil.

The successful supplies of Caspian crude to the oil refinery in Kralupy, the Czech Republic, would show that it is technically feasible to move two different types of crude via the same pipeline, Druzhba.

Ukrainian Journal