A deal for Azerbaijan to supply Ukraine with liquefied natural gas (LNG) was initialed on Tuesday, the head of the Ukrainian state agency for investment and national project management said.
Vladyslav Kaskiv said the supplied volumes will total up to two billion cubic meters from 2014 and up to 5 bcm from 2015, adding that his agency and Azerbaijan's state oil and gas company SOCAR would set up a joint venture to ensure Azerbaijani gas deliveries to Ukraine.
He said this would speed up a Ukrainian project to build a sea terminal to receive LNG.
"The construction of the LNG terminal supports the Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Ministry's efforts to reinforce the country's energy security," Kaskiv said.
Kiev plans to build an LNG terminal by 2015 to diversify gas supplies.
On September 16, it was reported that Spain's Socoin will draft a feasibility study for the project by January 2012. The construction is assessed at $1.5bn. Once implemented, the project will give Ukraine an opportunity to diversify supply routes for some 10 bcm of gas annually.
Ukraine is currently seeking to have the current "unfair" gas contracts with Russia revised. The deals were signed in 2009 by then premier Yulia Tymoshenko and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian media have also reported that Kiev and Ashkhabad have agreed on supplies of Turkmen gas to Ukraine.
