OREANDA-NEWS. April 02, 2010. Ukraine has made an offer to Russia to discuss modernization of Ukraine’s gas transport system.

“We are ready to discuss the modernization of our gas transportation system,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said late Thursday at a meeting with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

The upgrade could significantly increase the current capacity of Ukraine’s gas pipelines, Azarov said.

Azarov also said he had made an offer to E.U. countries to consider modernization of Ukraine’s pipelines.

Ukraine is also interested in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) participation in the project to modernize the gas pipelines, Azarov said at a meeting with Olivier Descamps, EBRD’s managing director for Turkey, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia.

In 2003, Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, and German energy company E.ON Ruhrgas concluded a preliminary agreement to run Ukraine's gas pipeline system. However, the agreement has not yet been finalized. Newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has repeatedly called for reviving talks on a Russian–E.U.–Ukrainian consortium to manage the country's gas pipeline system.