Ukraine Pushes for Chevron Olesska Shale Investments

Ukraine calls for Chevron's $25 billion investments to develop the potentially large Olesska shale gas deposit in its west, a senior energy official said on Tuesday as reported by Xinhua.

"This sum exceeds the amount of foreign investment that Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk regions have attracted over the 20 years of Ukraine's independence," Volodymyr Ignashchenko, adviser to Ukraine's minister of ecology and natural resources, said during a visit to Ivano-Frankovsk city.

Ukraine pushed for shale gas development and aimed to conclude negotiations with US-based Chevron Corp. as early as last week. Its deal with an ExxonMobil-led consortium is expected by August.

Kiev estimates Olesska shale reserves at up to 1.5 trillion cubic metres, but local politicians and environmental lobby groups have voiced their concern.

The government is keen to produce locally to ease Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas. Ukraine also continues to make ambitious plans to decrease national energy consumption, switch its power stations from natural gas to coal, build an LNG terminal, and open reverse flows of gas from Europe.