Ukraine plans to build a pipeline able to supply about 8 billion cubic metres of European gas through Poland, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported on Wednesday.

According to Radoslav Dudzinsky, member of the management board of Polish company Polenergia which is helping develop the project, the estimated cost of the construction of the 110-km main pipeline is about USD 245 M.

“I think that the pipeline can begin to work in 2019-2020, " Dudzinski said, adding the implementation of the project hinges on whether the necessary funding could be found.

If the pipeline comes on stream, Ukraine will be able to receive gas from Germany as well as liquefied natural gas from the Polish terminal in Swinoujscie, on the Baltic Sea coast, which will begin operations next year.

Besides supplying European gas to Ukraine, thus helping the country reduce its dependence on imports of Russian gas, the future pipeline could be used to pump gas from Ukraine to Poland during periods of peak consumption, using stockpiles of European gas in Ukrainian gas storage facilities, Dudzinsky said.

As UNIAN noted, even though Poland was the first country through which Ukraine started to receive gas from the European Union, only 1.5 billion cubic metres per year can flow through that link at the moment, compared to some 6 bcm via interconnection with Hungary and 10 bcm through Slovakia.

Ukraine’s annual gas consumption is estimated at 40-45 bcm. The country received half of that amount from Russia’s Gazprom until June, when Russia halted supplies over a price dispute and debt owed for past deliveries.