OREANDA-NEWS. The signing this week in Warsaw of a memorandum between the Ukrainian and Polish gas transmission system operators could be a first step towards the creation of an East European gas hub, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev has commented.

The implementation of the project between Ukraine's Ukrtransgaz and Poland's GAZ-SYSTEM will significantly increase the stability of the gas transmission network in the region.

Ukraine has considerable storage and transmission capacities to ensure its neighbors' energy security. A hub for balancing, storing and redistributing gas between Ukraine and the EU could have total annual capacity of about 20 billion cubic meters. The hub would be in a position to satisfy the gas balancing needs of many European countries, especially Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. It is expected that the project will use gas supplies from Russia, the European spot market, Poland and other sources. The East European Gas Hub will contribute to the flexibility of pan-European gas transmission infrastructure.

The project will also deepen the integration of the gas transmission systems of Ukraine and the EU, thus enhancing European energy security.

Kobolyev believes an expanded Visegrad group can function as an efficient platform for the project. The initiative to expand the Visegrad group of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to include Ukraine was recently suggested by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.