The Odesa–Brody pipeline (also known as Sarmatia pipeline) is a crude oil pipeline between the Ukrainian cities Odesa at the Black Sea, and Brody near the Ukrainian-Polish border. There are plans to expand the pipeline to Płock, and furthermore to Gdańsk in Poland. The pipeline is operated by UkrTransNafta, Ukraine's state-owned oil pipeline company. History The usage and direction of Odesa–Brody pipeline is considered to be of considerable geopolitical significance and has thus been the subject of both political disagreement and international pressure. Russia has repeated opposed the flow of oil from Brody to Poland and prefers to have the oil flow in the reverse direction from Russia to Brody and the Port of Pivdenny where the oil will be transported through the Turkish Straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles) to Europe. Beginning in 1973, Armand Hammer developed the Port of Pivdenny into the deepest warm water port on the Azov-Black Sea coast able to handle vessels up to a draft of . The pipeline was originally intended to reach Gdańsk in order to transfer oil from the Caspian Sea (mainly from Kazakhstan) to the Polish Baltic Sea port and from there to the rest of Europe. The Pivdenny maritime terminal west of Yuzhne, a suburb of Odesa, and the pipeline between Odesa and Brody was built in May 2002 by Ukrnaftogazbud and operated by UkrTransNafta. UkrTransNafta was established to develop the commercial attractiveness of the Odesa–Brody pipeline. From 2002 until 2004, flow of oil through the pipeline was idle. However, the pipeline remained unused until 2004. However, as sufficient capacities of oil supplies were not agreed, on 5 July 2004 the Ukrainian cabinet accepted proposal of Russian oil companies to reverse the pipeline flow, and thus making it transfer Russian oil southwards to the Black Sea and from there to Mediterranean destinations and signed a long term agreement between Russia and Ukraine on August 18, 2004, ensuring the reverse flow of oil. Currently the oil is shipped to the pipeline from the junction of the southern branch of Druzhba pipeline. Following the Orange Revolution and the election of Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister who on March 5, 2005, announced that the oil would flow from Brody to Europe, Ukraine opposes Russia's plan. On 24 March 2010, Ukraine's ambassador to Belarus proposed the pipeline begin operating in the averse direction in order to deliver Venezuelan crude to Belarusian refineries. In March 2020,