KIEV, October 21. /TASS/. Ukraine considers using the Earth’s remote probing from outer space, and also drones and piloted aircraft to protect its gas transportation network, the national energy company Naftogaz said on Tuesday.

Naftogaz’s statement came after the energy company held a meeting with specialists of the country’s leading aerospace organizations.

“These technologies will help ensure reliable protection of the overland stretch and mainline pipeline transport facilities, and provide assistance in the search for and geological prospecting of new hydrocarbon deposits,” Naftogaz said in a statement.

Thousands of security guards are currently involved in protecting the network’s overland stretch and stationary gas and oil trunk pipelines while hundreds of mobile crews patrol the pipelines daily, Naftogaz said.

“Protection of the mainline infrastructure becomes especially important in the conditions of an exacerbation of the armed conflict in east Ukraine,” Naftogaz said in a statement.

“The use of modern technologies for the protection of trunk pipeline facilities will help receive real-time information on the condition of pipelines and timely respond to criminal offences exposed at the pipeline network facilities,” the Naftogaz press office said.

Today’s meeting was attended by representatives of the country’s Energy and Coal Ministry, Naftogaz subsidiaries, and also specialists from the State Space Agency, the scientific center for the Earth’s aerospace exploration, the Institute of Geological Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.