KIEV, Aug. 6 – Ukraine may tap other oil companies to see if they are interested in moving Caspian Sea oil via Odessa-Brody oil pipeline to Europe, Energy and Fuel Minister Ivan Prodan said Wednesday.

Prodan, an ally of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, responded to criticism that the government has been recently taking steps to block Caspian oil supplies to Europe.

President Viktor Yushchenko, an ardent supporter of the project, accused Tymoshenko of neglecting national energy security after the government had blocked signing of the first Caspian oil contract on July 16.