Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday she would sign a ruling to reverse the flow of the Odessa-Brody pipeline only after the signing of accords for supplies of oil to be transported through the pipeline, the Prime-Tass news agency reports.
"The government and I support using the Odessa-Brody pipeline in the mode for which it was designed and built," Tymoshenko said at a news conference, adding the government and the Energy and Fuel Ministry were close to completing talks with countries that could be involved in the project.
Earlier this month, Tymoshenko refused to sign the ruling due to what she said was a "corrupt scheme" organized by Viktor Baloga, the president's chief of staff, and Igor Kolomoisky, a co-owner of Ukraine's Privat group. Tymoshenko said they had conspired to pump $300 million of oil out of the pipeline for sale to an offshore company.
Earlier this year, President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree to start oil shipments through the Odessa-Brody pipeline to the European Union starting in 2008.
The pipeline, built in 2002, was initially designed to transport Caspian oil to Europe. However, Ukraine failed to obtain sufficient supplies of Caspian oil and instead started pumping Russian oil to the Black Sea in reverse mode in 2004.
Ukraine has always been keen on switching back to its initial plan to ship pump oil westward. In 2005, the Ukrainian and Polish governments signed an accord to supply Caspian oil to Poland through the Odessa-Brody pipeline.