Shell transaction will bring energy independence to Ukraine

The agreement with Shell was an important step in ensuring the greater energy independence of Ukraine and the attractiveness of the country for investors. This was written in his article in “Financial Times” Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of Riccardo Puliti.

“Despite the generous financing of both traditional and non -traditional energy sources, Ukraine still depends on the import of natural gas from Russia, which affects both the country's budget and its geopolitical position.

Message from Davos on signing an agreement for € 400 million with Royal Dutch Shell for the development of huge shale gas reserves last week, a new era in Ukraine began. Although production will begin only a few years later, this news was widely covered as a big step towards energy independence.

The importance of this independence was emphasized two days later, when the Russian state monopoly Gazprom presented to Ukraine a fine in $ 7 for a shortage of natural gas. These two events are connected or not, but you can be sure that the agreement with Shell was noticed in Moscow, ”writes Puliti.

“We in the EBRD believe that agreements with Shell and other transactions with Chevron and Exxon-Mobile, aimed at developing individual gas deposits, note a very important step towards the country's greater energy independence.

The next step towards energy independence will be the involvement of a larger number of foreign investors of medium size to Ukraine. Indeed, in the case of shale gas intelligence, all the necessary technologies will have to be brought from abroad.

The wide publication of the agreement with Shell will surely attract the attention of investors. What they need now is confidence in the legal and regulatory system, in the tax regime of the extraction of bicarbonates and the legal certainty in the provision of licenses.

President of the country Viktor Yanukovych recently ordered his government to speed up reforms in these areas. As soon as the changes begin to occur, the medium -sized companies will follow large and help Ukraine get closer to real energy independence, ”the representative of the EBRD notes.

As previously reported, on January 24, in Davos A participation of President Viktor Yanukovych, an agreement was signed between Shell and Nadra Yuzovskaya on the division of products from shale gas production in the Yuzovsky site in the Kharkov and Donetsk regions.

Shell (Shell Exploration and Production Ukraine Investment BV) and SHEVron will not produce gas themselves, but with Ukrainian partners - joint ventures created by NAC NAKA Ukraine (90%) and a little -known company SPK -Geoservice (10%).

Shell is ready to invest $ 6 million in the creation of the Ukrainian Institute of Non -traditional gas, which will be