OREANDA-NEWS. According to Alfa Bank press-service, Lithuania’s authorities have announced that Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia are planning to sign an agreement in October to jointly participate in extending the existing Odessa-Brody oil pipeline from Ukraine to Poland.

The project to construct a 250 km-long pipeline was initiated by Ukraine’s UkrTransNafta and Poland’s PERN in July 2004 and is currently expected to cost $400 mln. Shares of 24.75% in the project will be spread evenly among UkrTransNafta, PERN, the state oil and gas company of Azerbaijan and the state company of Georgia, with 1% share to be attributed to Klaipedos Nafta.

The feasibility of the project is difficult to estimate; however, in the opinion of Alfa Bank's experts, it is motivated more by politics than economics, with Eastern Europe countries wishing to have alternative transportation routes independent of Russia. Of the parties to the project, only Azerbaijan could in theory provide oil, but its oil is mostly committed to the BTC pipeline. Likewise, oil from Kazakhstan (not to mention Russia), with the introduction of the Burgas-Alexandropoulos pipeline (linked to the extension of the CPC), is likely to be destined for the Mediterranean.