The Ukrainian Cabinet has approved signing of an inter-governmental deal on purchases of Azerbaijani liquefied gas, RIA Novosti reports.
The project includes gas supply as agreed by Ukrainian and Azerbaijani presidents and according to the memorandum of Ukraine and Azerbaijan for cooperation in supply of liquefied gas, signed on January 28, 2011.
A terminal will be constructed to receive gas in the Black Sea water zone. Ukraine will be able to find alternate gas exporters and benefit the mechanism of competition.
Kiev expects to sign a deal on purchases of Azerbaijani gas for the terminal in Ukraine at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland in late January. The two states also plan to form a joint venture for Azerbaijani gas deliveries.
Kiev and Baku initialed a deal on supply of Azerbaijani liquefied gas to Ukraine in September 2011. Ukraine will receive up to 2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2012, up to 5 billion cubic meters in 2015.
Ukraine wants to cope with dependence on Russian gas. It plans to build a terminal for liquefied gas on the Black Sea coast. The project has a preliminary cost of $2.5 billion. Kiev is also planning to increase capacity of its gas terminal (the current cap is 10 billion cubic meters)
