FT: Ukraine gas hopes pinned on lower royalty rates

One big casualty of Ukraine’s tensions with Russia has been its ambitions for independence in natural gas - and its attempts to end reliance on the Russian imports that Moscow has used as a political lever. 

Russia’s annexation of Crimea, in March last year, torpedoed a plan for an ExxonMobil-led consortium to exploit a Ukranian field in the western Black Sea.  Three months later, Royal Dutch Shell froze plans to explore the huge Yuzivska shale gas field in Eastern Ukraine - previously seen as a potential $10bn project. This field straddles regions now controlled by Russian-backed rebels.

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