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Gas transit through Ukraine will depend on conditions provided by Kiev - Russian lawmaker

At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee stressed that "the more alternatives, the better"

BERLIN, May 18. /TASS/. The transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine will depend on the conditions Kiev provides and security of supplies, Pavel Zavalny, head of the State Duma’s committee on energy told reporters.

Zavalny took part in 21 Russian-German Potsdam Meetings in Berlin. The State Duma is lower house of parliament.

"Risks for transit do exist, they have been here throughout the existence of modern Ukraine. Everything will depend on the conditions that the Ukrainian side gives us, and the security of supplies," he said.

At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee stressed that "the more alternatives, the better."

Zavalny marked that gas supplies to Europe from Russia have certain advantages in comparison with gas supplies from other regions, including supplies of LNG from the US. He also pointed at the "economic nature "of the Nord Stream-2 project.

"The first factor is growth of demand for gas in Europe. We predicted it, in fact, it can be observed already," he said.

"The second economic factor is that the resource base in Russia is shifting to the north, to the Yamal peninsula. If we look at the map, we can state that the distance from the new resource base to Germany is 1,800 km shorter than the way through Ukraine. As a result, deliveries of blue fuel via the Nord Stream-2 will be one and a half times cheaper than the old transit.

Nord Stream-2 is an international project for the construction of a gas pipeline that will run across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany bypassing transit states, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries.

The new 1,200 kilometer pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will traverse economic zones and territorial water of five countries, namely Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. The pipeline’s capacity will be 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year and it is planned to be commissioned in late 2019. The aggregate cost of the project is estimated at 9.5 billion euro.

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