14-04-08 Poland and Ukraine want to press ahead with their oil pipeline project from Azerbaijan in an effort to lessen their dependency on Russian energy supplies, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko were quoted as saying following their meeting in Warsaw.
Both heads of states signed an accord for the construction of an oil pipeline from the Polish-Ukrainian border to the Baltic Sea port of Gdansk.

As part of the pipeline project, oil from Azerbaijan is to be transported via Georgia to the Black Sea where it is to be shipped to the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. An existing pipeline from Odessa will pipe the oil to the Polish town of Brody where a planned pipeline extension will supply the oil to Gdansk. Georgia and Lithuania are also involved in the project.
Warsaw hopes that the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk oil pipeline which would transport Caspian oil west to Poland and Europe, could be operational in 2011 -- despite lingering logistical problems.

The 673-km long Odessa-Brody pipeline was completed in 2002. The extension of the Odessa-Brody pipeline could help bring Caspian oil to Poland, thus bypassing the Russian supplier.
The main strategic importance of the Odessa-Gdansk pipeline is as revenue producer since charging transit fees can also help spur development in the economically-depressed post-Soviet states. The completed pipeline would supply PKN Orlen, Central Europe's leading fuels refiner and distributor, with Caspian crude oil. Based in the Polish city of Plock, PKN Orlen which is still partly owned by the Polish state operates in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Poland has openly accused Russia of using its energy reserves as means of blackmailing its western neighbours.
Warsaw had previously criticized Moscow for cutting gas supplies to Ukraine and Belarus in a price dispute, and for signing a major deal with Germany to build the Baltic Sea gas pipeline bypassing Poland.