Ukraine mulls int'l consortium to manage its gas network

Kiev is considering a possibility to set up an international consortium with participation of natural gas buyers and suppliers to manage Ukrainian gas transportation network, the country's Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Tuesday.

"We are the owners of the gas transit system, Europeans are the buyers of gas and suppliers are needed to effectively load the system," Demchyshyn told a forum named "Fuel and Energy Complex of Ukraine: Present and Future" in Kiev.

He said that energy companies from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which produce gas, could be potentially involved in the consortium as suppliers.

Kiev's preliminary conception of the joint venture envisages that Ukraine would own 51 percent in the consortium, while the group of international partners would have the rest, Demchyshyn said.

Ukraine has Europe's second largest gas transportation network. With a capacity to pump 142.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year, it carries 15 percent of the gas consumed by the European Union. Endit