Ukraine Claims to Possess World's Biggest Shale Gas Deposits

KYIV, November 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraineplans to attract international investors to analyze and develop Ukrainian shale gas deposits. The Ministry, together with the National Joint Stock Company (NAK) "Nadra of Ukraine",made this announcement at the "World Shale Gas - 2010" exhibition and conference, wichtook placein Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, USA.

The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of UkraineMykolaZlochevsky, and the Chairman of NAK "Nadra of Ukraine" Eduard Stavytskyi, jointly participated in the conference. Their visit to the United States of America is aimed at learning about new technological processes, possible problems and risks while yielding gas supplies. In addition, the Ukrainian representatives were looking into the potential partnership for the developmentof the deposits.

NAK "Nadra of Ukraine" stated that the territory of Ukraine enjoys the biggest shale gas supply in the world, according to the press center of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. However, the exact quantity of the substance was not specified.

Earlier, on 9 November 2010, Canadian East West Petroleum Cooperation (EWP) and KuwaitEnergyCompanyverified their readiness to yield shale gas in Ukraine, as stated in Toronto stock exchange announcement. Prior to that, in June, a Polish company Kulczyk Oil completed the purchase of 70% of the Ukrainian gas-extracting company KUB-gas.This proves the ever-growing international interest towards Ukraine's natural resources.

Shalegasisnaturalgasproducedfromshale. In recent years,the development of the substance drastically changed the situation at the world gas market. Currently, shale gas makesup for nearly 20% of the US energy market. The Wood Mackenzie's latest corporate analysis highlights that the upstream M&A expenditure in US shale gas totaled US$21 billion during the first half of 2010.

ExxonMobil and Shell have already obtained licenses for developing shale gas deposits in Sweden, Poland, Germany, and France.It has been claimed byWoodMackenzie that Poland might possess 1360 billion of cubic meters of the substance. In case this prediction proves true, it will seriously change the European energy market. Impressed by the recent developments on the issue, the President of BelorusAleksandrLukashenko expressed a desire to search for shale supplies treasured under Belorussian soil as well.

SOURCE Worldwide News Ukraine