KIEV, Ukraine, July 30 (UPI) -- Kiev aims to raise more than $6 billion to help modernize a Soviet-era natural gas pipeline for Europe, the Energy Ministry announced.
Kiev is under pressure to update its Soviet-era gas transit networks after its reputation as a gas transit nation was tarnished following a dispute with Russian gas company Gazprom.
Kiev hosts 80 percent of the Russian gas headed for European markets. Gazprom cut gas briefly in January 2009 because of contract disputes.
The Energy Ministry ordered Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz to begin examining ways to fund the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline with credit and international support, the National News Agency of Ukraine reports.
The Energy Ministry aims to raise $6.5 billion to modernize the entire gas transit network, with $1.3 billion allocated to the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline.
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline connects Siberian gas fields to European markets. The pipeline transits 2,765 miles and carries 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year.
Upgrades to compressor stations and general reconstruction of the Ukrainian gas transit network are expected by 2018.
Gunther Oettinger, the energy commissioner for the European Union, told delegates at a meeting in Odessa this week that the EU is pressing for reforms in the gas transit and the domestic market in Ukraine.
