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KIEV, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on Friday have agreed to speed up the construction of a new pipeline that would link the gas transportation networks of their countries, Poroshenko's spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko said.
"The Presidents have instructed to speed up the construction of the gas interconnector between Ukraine and Poland," Tsegolko said on Twitter after the meeting between Poroshenko and Duda in Warsaw.
The project to build the interconnector, which would increase reverse gas flows from Europe to Ukraine by at least 5 billion cubic meters per year, will be launched in 2017.
The new gas pipeline is designed to trim Ukraine's reliance on Russian gas supplies and to stockpile more gas designated for the consumers in Europe in Ukraine's underground storage facilities.
Currently, the Ukrainian gas transportation system is connected to Poland through a single pipeline with an annual transit capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
In 2014, Ukraine started a reverse flow of gas deliveries from the European Union countries, namely Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in an attempt to reduce dependence on gas imported from Russia. Enditem
