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Europe: Ukraine seeks foreign investment in offshore gas exploration

Europe: Ukraine seeks foreign investment in offshore gas exploration

Write: Litton [2011-05-20]
p>Ukraine plans to encourage foreign investment in the exploration and development of natural gas deposits on the Black Sea shelf to improve its energy security, Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Boyko said in a statement Thursday.


Boyko said the government had already invited a number of the world's top energy companies to join the projects, but did not name them.


Ukraine's main natural gas deposits are on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov shelves, Boyko said.


Ukraine plans to increase natural gas output by 50% over the next three years to about 30 billion cubic meters a year, First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev said last month.


Boyko said commercial output of natural gas from the Black Sea shelf is expected in 2014.


"If we develop all our deposits that we have suggested to foreign partners, this will mean a considerable increase in our domestic gas output.


This will be a major improvement in our energy security," Boyko said.


The government is expected to sign an amicable deal by the end of the month with US oil company Vanco Energy that would open way for investment in developing offshore areas of the Black Sea.


The deal would end two years of litigation between the government and Vanco that started after then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had canceled the production sharing agreement in May 2008.


China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html