Ukraine wants Iran to ship its natural gas to Europe via Ukrainian pipelines, a top Ukrainian official said Tuesday. In a statement released in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko, head of the National State Security and Defense Council, said some 128 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia, Turkmenistan and other countries go through Ukrainian pipelines annually, meeting about 50 percent of European demand. Given growing European needs for gas, Iran should look to use Ukraine's pipelines in the future, the statement said. "European countries' demand for gas may increase to 480 billion cubic meters a year, and Iran might play an important role in it by supplying some 240 billion cubic meters," he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. Poroshenko is on a two-day visit to Iran, where he met his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rowhani, and was scheduled to meet other officials. The statement cited Rowhani as saying that Iran, which has the world's second largest reserves of gas, could boost its exports within the next two years. Ukraine gets millions in transit revenues annually from shipping Russian natural gas to Europe via its pipelines.
