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Azarov: Ukraine and Croatia to sign memorandum on Adriatic gas corridor tomorrow
04.11.2013 16:41 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović are going to sign on Tuesday a memorandum on the establishment of the Adriatic Gas Corridor, which will connect Ukraine, Hungary and Croatia.
This was stated by Mykola Azarov during a meeting with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, Government Portal reports.
«Tomorrow Prime Minister of Croatia stays in Ukraine on an official visit, and we are intended to sign a memorandum according to which on the Adriatic coast LNG-terminal and pipeline will be built,» he said.
Prime Minister said that over the past three years because of gas contracts of 2009 Ukraine overpaid Russia $ 20 billion, and therefore it is forced to pursue policy of diversification of energy supplies, production of hydrocarbons from unconventional sources and transfer its energy to coal.
«We set a goal to significantly reduce our dependence on gas supplies from Russia. We have taken a number of steps that have given us the opportunity to halve the consumption of Russian gas. Also, we have taken steps to increase domestic gas production. In particular, we’ve negotiated with the largest companies - Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron. We have prepared agreements with all these companies. We have carefully studied the U.S. experience with shale gas production, and we expect that shale deposits in the future will allow us to produce from 10 to 20 billion cubic meters of gas,» Mykola Azarov said.
The parties also discussed the European aspirations of Ukraine. In particular, Victoria Nuland said that U.S. companies are interested in Ukraine’s signing of the Association Agreement, since in this case they will be able to increase their production rates in Ukraine and then sell their ready products duty-free on the EU market.
«The EU will not sign the agreement with Ukraine only because they are „good guys“. They are interested in coming to their markets of qualitative goods and workforce, in innovations reaching their companies. And our companies as well want to see the Association Agreement and the Agreement with the IMF because they will be able to produce more products in Ukraine and then sell them to Europe,» Victoria Nuland said.
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