KIEV, Ukraine, June 21 (UPI) -- The European Union has expressed interest in creating an international gas transit consortium, the Ukrainian prime minister said Monday.
A series of disputes between Russian energy company Gazprom and Ukraine created gas supply worries for Europe as 80 percent of all Russian gas bound for the European Union heads through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said European leaders favored a trilateral gas consortium involving the European Union, Russia and Ukraine to ease concerns, the National News Agency of Ukraine reports.
"The EU has expressed interest in creating such a consortium," the prime minister said.
Azarov recommended that the EU give Russian guarantees to purchase gas for the next 10 years and that Russia should give "assurances to Ukraine, that those volumes of gas that are purchased by the European Union will be pumped via our gas transit systems."
The Ukrainian prime minister said his country would be at a disadvantage when rival Russian gas pipelines to Europe go into service because Kiev relies in part on transit revenue.
