KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakh president urges Poland to include Russia in a key oil pipeline project

Kazakhstan, seeking to prevent its ties with Moscow from cooling, urged Poland on Thursday (March 29) to include Russia in a project to extend a key European oil pipeline. The project envisages reversing the flow of Ukraine's Odessa-Brody pipeline, which brings Russian crude to the Black Sea port of Odessa. Instead, it would bring Caspian oil from the Black Sea through Ukraine to Poland and the Baltic. The extension of the pipeline, pioneered by Poland and Ukraine, is aimed at cutting their dependence on Russian energy by opening up supplies of Kazakh and Azeri crude. But Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking after talks with Polish President Lech Kaczynski in the Kazakh capital Astana, said Russia must be included in the project nonetheless. "The project Odessa-Brody-Gdansk is for us a good alternative. During the negotiations phase, it is absolutely necessary to invite appropriate Russian structures. This is an economic matter, not a political one," Nazarbayev told reporters just hours before Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was due to arrive in Kazakhstan on a visit. Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan have somewhat cooled as the oil-producing Central Asian nation conducts increasingly independent energy diplomacy. The impact of its energy policy will intensify as production from the huge Caspian fields grows over the next decade. Moscow, in particular, is wary of Kazakhstan joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline that bypasses Russia and Astana's burgeoning ties with Brussels and Washington. Poland and Ukraine rely almost entirely on Russia for their energy needs and want to get access to alternative sources. They have stepped up efforts to diversify away from Russia ever since pricing disputes interrupted deliveries of supplies. Warsaw sees access to Caspian oil as a strategic project. Kaczynski, in Astana to discuss energy ties, is due to travel to Azerbaijan on Friday (March 30). "President Nazarbayev has highlighted many issues which are hampering the transportation of oil on routes other than from Russia. I want to stress that Poland is not Russia's enemy, but Poland wants to diversify the supply routes. We have talked about this with the president and I told him that I cannot exclude anything. The president has very good bilateral relations with both Poland and Russia. The issue is open," Kaczynski said at a joint news conference with Nazarbayev. The Odessa-Brody extension project has been plagued for years by lack of funding, supplies and political bickering between Russia and the EU over control of new oil routes. The extension is also important for Kazakhstan, whose main challenge is not finding new oil deposits but securing reliable export routes that would link it directly to Western markets. Its Soviet past and landlocked geography have made Kazakhstan reliant on Russia for exports and has prompted the government to look for alternative routes.

ITN Source | March 30, 2007

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