Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said he would seriously examine the criticism of his government’s stand on cooperation with Ukraine in the project to build the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk pipeline. The Polish chief executive made this statement in response to a critical article carried in Warsaw’s leading periodical, Rzeczpospolita, claiming that Warsaw’s political considerations of expediency of laying the Odesa-Brody pipeline to Gdansk have outweighed its economic interests. The newspaper also claims that persons responsible for the project on the Polish side have been charged with financial fraud.
Pres. Kwasniewski has stressed that he remains a staunch supporter of close and active cooperation with Ukraine, reports the Ukrainian BBC service.
The pipeline from Odesa to the Polish port of Gdansk could become one of the oil supply routes from the Caspian oil fields of the Transcaucasus and Central Asia to Western Europe.
With the Baku-Ceyhan (Turkey) pipeline labeled the main Caspian oil transport route, the Odesa-Brody pipeline is seen as its continuation rather than alternative. Meanwhile, the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk route could with time take over part of the oil currently transported from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Novosibirsk line. Moscow has always been ambivalent about the Odesa-Brody project. Now, after an American company released a technical and economic feasibility study of this route, an international consortium is to be set up, which has always been a contentious issue during related talks in Kyiv, Baku, and Warsaw.
Vice Premier Janusz Stainhof, minister for the economy in the previous Polish government who is responsible for the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk project, told the Ukrainian BBC service after the publication in Rzeczpospolita that he would further support the construction of the pipeline on Polish territory. According to Mr. Stainhof, he knows of no circumstances which could render this pipeline other than advantageous for Poland. On the other hand, nobody has ever made a secret of the fact that Poland will support this project primarily for political reasons.
COMMENTARY
Serhiy MAKSYMENKO, director of the East-West Institute Kyiv Center
As regards the prospects for the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk pipeline, I could say that recent developments indicate a positive trend for Ukraine, with the project gaining more support. As has been rightly noted, the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk route is more a political than economic project. It is not ruled out that for this very reason this article appeared in the Polish newspaper. Today it is obvious that some parties interested in this project have not made a final decision whether to give it the go-ahead within the context of Ukrainian interests or not. In the months to come, which can be termed a transition period, these final decisions will be made. The article could well be designed to obscure the dealings concerning the pipeline. However, only its authors know its true purpose.
