Ukraine and the United States agreed on Friday to further intensity their energy cooperation through large-scale projects of shale gas, according to Xinhua.
During the meeting with U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Payette, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said the two states should enhance collaboration in energy field through big projects in shale gas extraction.
"We signed several agreements with the companies ExxonMobil and Chevron. I hope that all the preliminary procedures will be fast enough and investors will soon begin development of shale gas in Ukraine," he said.
Azarov stressed that his government will do its best to assist the U.S. companies in implementation of energy projects.
For his part, Payette said he saw a potential for Ukraine to become an energy center of Europe.
"We hope that shale gas development could be a good mechanism to lift Ukraine's economic growth and open up new opportunities. And also, we hope that this will be a specific catalyst that will help to reform the energy market and ensure that Ukraine has become an energy hub for Europe," said the ambassador.
Ukraine is pinning great hopes on its domestic gas production, aiming at producing about 45 billion cubic meters of gas per year by 2020.
In 2012, Ukraine picked a group of companies led by the U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil to explore gas reserves in southern Skifska area with potential output of 3 billion cubic meters per year.
Another U.S. energy firm Chevron is developing Olesska shale gas deposit in its west with estimated reserves of 0.8 trillion to 1.5 trillion cubic meters.
