Ukrainian Cabinet decides against reversing Odessa-Brody pipeline

Feb. 9, 2004
The Ukrainian government has decided against reversing the Odessa-Brody crude oil pipeline. The decision reaffirmed Ukraine's intention to use the line to carry oil north from the Black Sea to Europe and eventually to the Baltic Sea.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 9 -- The Ukrainian government has decided against reversing the Odessa-Brody crude oil pipeline. The decision reaffirmed Ukraine's intention to use the line to carry oil north from the Black Sea to Europe and eventually to the Baltic Sea.

On Feb. 4, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers ignored the recommendations of a feasibility study into the proposed pipeline reversal. The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry had commissioned the study.

The cabinet decision "should bring to an end months of uncertainty, during which a debate raged within the country over whether the pipeline, which has lain idle since its construction, should be reversed to carry Russian oil to Ukraine's new Black Sea terminal at Pivdenne, said the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies.

But if oil does not start flowing north within a few months, then the question of the line's reversal could be raised again, CGES said in a research note. "The debate is unlikely to end unless or until the pipeline is in use."

The 667-km pipeline runs from Pivdenne to a pumping station on the southern branch of the Druzhba export pipeline at Brody. The 420 mile, 40-in. line, having a capacity of 180,000 b/d, has yet to be used (OGJ, Oct. 6, 2003, p.62).