The Ukrtransnafta company announced plans on Thursday to begin to pump oil from Odessa to Brody and then carry it on by rail to refineries in southern Poland

The Ukrtransnafta company announced plans on Thursday to begin to pump oil from Odessa to Brody and then carry it on by rail to refineries in southern Poland in October or early in November. The oil would go to two refineries owned by the Orlen company and three owned by the Lotos company, Ukrtransnafta President Oleksandr Todiichuk told reporters. He said Ukrtransnafta signed agreements this summer with those companies to supply them with oil along the Odessa- Brody pipeline. "Orlen and Lotos are ready to accept this oil, up to 1 million tonnes a year," he said. He said Ukrtransnafta also planned oil supply deals with Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany, and all three countries will receive their oil via the same pipeline. The first section of the pipeline was put into operation in May last year. It has an annual capacity of up to 14,500 million tonnes and a tank system that can hold 200,000 cubic meters. There are plans to bring the annual capacity of the pipeline to between 40-45 million tonnes and the capacity of its tank system to 600,000 cubic meters. The Yuzhny sea oil terminal in Odessa can handle tankers with a maximum deadweight of 100,000 tonnes.