Ukrgazvydobuvannia mulls gas extraction on Black Sea shelf

"We propose to develop five licensed areas on the Black Sea shelf, where gas reserves range from 80 to 300 billion cubic meters... We estimate that it is possible to reach a 5 bcm annual output in 5-7 years. I believe, with the use of the experience of other countries, we will be able to shorten this period," he said, adding that the state company expects to begin exploratory drilling in 2019-2020 and switch to industrial production in early 2021.

According to Prokhorenko, investments in this project may amount to UAH 5-6 billion, since the drilling on the shelf is a really expensive endeavor.

Read alsoNaftogaz boosts gas purchases by almost a third in 8 months "Ukrgazvydobuvannia has never worked on the shelf, so we are looking forward to future cooperation offers. It may be a production sharing agreement or a production contract but the main idea is that we will not do everything ourselves, we want to obtain licenses, attract investors to this project, and create conditions for this segment’s development so that other companies could later enter Ukraine," he added.

Read alsoUkraine's gas imports from Slovakia down early OctoberAs UNIAN reported earlier, the company increased natural gas production in 2016 by 0.5%, to 14.605 bcm, while production in 2015 fell by 3.8% from 2014, to 14.528 bcm.

Read alsoUkraine’s border guards see Russia continuing to extract gas on Ukrainian shelf in Black SeaUNIAN memo. Ukrgazvydobuvannia is Ukraine's largest gas producer, accounting for 70% of total hydrocarbon production.