REUTERS
State-run enterprise Ukrgeofizika whose core business is geological prospecting and mineral exploration predicts that Ukraine's unexplored natural gas reserves that will have to be prospected in the future and included in the gas industry's resource base are estimated at 5.5 trillion cubic meters (tcm).
"According to the most conservative estimates, the unexplored traditional hydrocarbon deposits in Ukraine's three oil and gas areas (Eastern, Western, and Southern) total about 5.5 billion tonnes of fuel equivalent. One unit of fuel equivalent corresponds to 1,000 cubic meters of gas, or one tonne of oil or gas condensate," Deputy Director of Ukrgeofizika's Geological Department Ananoliy Tolkunov said.
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"Over 30% of all crude oil and natural gas resources are concentrated in the Southern oil and gas area of Ukraine [the Black Sea area]. Most of those hydrocarbon deposits are part of the shelf, the continental slope, and the deep-water part of the Black Sea," Tolkunov added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion said in June 2017 that Ukraine owned over 920 billion cubic meters (bcm) of proven gas reserves, of which the country used only 2% a year, whereas European countries' average figure was 8-12%.
In the middle of January, Chairman of NJSC Nadra Ukrayny Board Yaroslav Klymovych said that gas reserves in Ukraine at a current rate of production would be enough for 22 years.
According to him, there are 402 hydrocarbon deposits in Ukraine, including 269 deposits being in commercial development. Ukraine increased natural gas production in 2017 by 3.1% from 2016, to 20.8 bcm.
After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukraine lost control of some oil and gas fields on the Black Sea shelf.