KIEV, August 15 (RIA Novosti) – A consortium led by U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil has won a tender to develop a huge gas field off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, gazeta.ru reported on Wednesday, citing Environment and Natural Resources Minister Eduard Stavitsky.
“The Cabinet of Ministers supported a proposal by the interdepartmental commission to sign a production-sharing agreement and define a group of companies led by ExxonMobil as the winner [of the tender],” he said.
The group of companies that have filed a bid together with ExxonMobil comprises the British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Romania’s OMV and the Ukrainian national joint stock company Nadra Ukrainy.
The other bidder in the tender was the Russian private oil company LUKoil’s subsidiary LUKoil Overseas Ukraine B.V.
The deep-water Skifske offshore deposit with a total area of 16,700 sq. km is expected to produce 3-4 billion cu m of natural gas annually. Investment in the project is estimated at $10-12 billion.