The Ukrainian and Polish presidents have discussed the possibility of extending the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline farther to Plock and Gdansk in Poland, Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko told reporters in Gdansk on Friday.

"Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych put forth this issue [of extending the oil pipeline] before the president and prime minister of Poland, and the Polish government's agencies concerned were instructed to study [the situation] to make a decision," he said while commenting the outcome of Yanukovych's state visit to Poland.

According to Boiko, in case of the launch of the second phase of the Baltic Pipeline System in October 2011, oil from the middle branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline will be partly transferred by Russia into that pipeline system.

In this case, the minister said, the Polish side will have an opportunity to use Azerbaijani oil for pumping through the [Odesa-Brody] pipeline [which intersects with Druzhba]. "This is a serious opportunity both for us and Poland," he stressed.

The presidential bilateral talks also touched on coordination of efforts to improve operation of both gas and oil pipelines in the two countries.

"As we have common problems around bypassing gas and oil pipelines, I believe that the visit has given a very serious impetus to coordination of efforts to improve prospects for loading our countries' gas and oil pipelines," he added.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania in the middle of October 2007 signed an agreement to set up a joint enterprise to design and lay an oil pipeline from Baku to Odesa, Brody, Plock and farther to Gdansk. Late in September 2010, the leaders of Ukraine and Poland showed interest in invigorating that project.

According to Nova Sarmatia, which is responsible for investing in extending the oil pipeline and was founded by five concerns from Poland, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Lithuania, the Odesa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk is able to ship up to 40 million tonnes of crude oil per year from the Caspian area.

The Odesa-Brody pipeline was originally built to pump light Caspian oil to Europe and started work in 2001. It was constantly used in reverse mode (in the direction of Pivdenny Terminal in Odesa region).

Ukraine is actively working to use it in the direct mode (in the direction of Brody). Particularly, Belarus announced it would use the oil pipeline in the direct mode to ship Venezuelan oil to its Mozyr oil pipeline

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