Ukraine To Export Gas From Iran.

Ukraine and Iran inked a memorandum of understanding Monday on the export of 30 bln cm of natural gas to Ukraine. The document was signed by the Ukrainian deputy minister of energy during his visit to Iran. According to Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, Iran’s deputy oil minister, Ukraine expressed interest in importing an annual 20 to 30 bln cm of natural gas from Iran for domestic use and also agreed to allow Iran to use its infrastructure for the transit of 20 bln cm of natural gas to Europe. For the project to materialize the en route countries (Armenia, Georgia, and Russia) will be invited to help plan development. Ukraine has offered Iran two routes for a gas pipeline to Western Europe: from Iran through Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine to Europe, and from Iran through Armenia and Georgia, across the Black Sea, and through Ukraine to Europe. About 128 bln cm natural gas from Russia, Turkmenistan and other countries go through Ukrainian pipelines per year, meeting about 50% of Europe’s demand. Concorde Capital: If successful, the project will allow Ukraine to diversify its gas supplies and decrease its dependency on Russian gas in the medium term. The project would be also greatly beneficial for Iran as currently there are problems with Iran’s gas export to Europe via Turkey, and gas transit through Ukraine poses an attractive alternative to this.