Exxon Led Consortium Wins Access to Ukraine's Oil and Gas Resources

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• Publié par: worldwide-news-ukraine
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Exxon Led Consortium Wins Access to Ukraine's Oil and Gas Resources PR Newswire KYIV, Ukraine, August 15, 2012

KYIV, Ukraine,August 15, 2012/PRNewswire/ --

Four companies won the right to develop oil and gas reserves at the Ukrainian deep marine shelf field Scythian under the Black Sea, according to Eduard Stavytskyi, Ukrainian Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources. American ExxonMobil, Dutch-British Royal Dutch Shell, Romanian OMV Petrom, and Ukrainian state company Nadra will unlock the underwater deposits.

Scythian field is "massive in size" (16,698 square kilometers) and "adjacent and geologically similar to where ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom are exploring off Romania'scoast,"The Financial Timesquotes an unnamed Ukrainian government official. The Ukrainian government chose the joint bid by four companies over the bid byRussia'soil giant Lukoil. "Bringing in the energy majors is a paradigm shift forUkraine'senergy security and investment climate. No deals of this magnitude have yet been inked in this country," said the president of the American Chamber of Commerce inUkraine Jorge Zukoski in his interview to the British press. Group, led by Exxon, will pay at leastUSD 300 millionfor the right to sign a 50 year production agreement with the Ukrainian government within ten days after signing. Their bid also stipulates investingUSD 400 millionduring the initial phase of the exploration. This is double of what the Ukrainian government was initially aiming for. The commercial production at Scythian oil and gas field may start in six to eight years and reach three to four billion cubic meters of gas annually, informs the FT. Ukraineis estimated to possess the fourth-largest shale gas reserves inEurope. The planned exploration projects inUkraineare an attempt of the country to rid itself of energy dependency onRussia, according to the British paper. InMay 2012, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron Corp obtained the right to develop Ukrainian shale gas fields Yuzivske and Oleske, respectively. The fields are expected to provideUkrainewith up to ten percent of domestically consumed natural gas by 2020. Moreover,Ukrainebegan reforming its inefficient energy system by adopting the State Program on Energy Efficiency 2010-2015.Ukraineaims at reduction of domestic energy consumption through increasing energy efficiency, as well as developing domestic gas reserves, introducing green energy production technology, and diversifying gas import.