The Ukrainian Cabinet plans to sign the production-sharing agreement (PSA) on the Skifska hydrocarbon section on the Black Sea shelf with a multinational consortium led by ExxonMobil in February, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
“We will sign it in February,” he said, adding that ExxonMobil’s president was in Kyiv last week.
Ukraine held tenders on PSAs to develop three sections in 2012: Yuzivska (Kharkiv and Donetsk regions), Oleska (Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk) and Skifska.
A consortium of ExxonMobil (40%, project operator), Shell (35%), Austria’s OMV in the face of Romanian subsidiary Petrom (15%) and Nadra Ukrainy (10%) won the tender to Skifska.
Skifska covers 16,698 square kilometers near Zmiyiny (Serpent) Island. Investment in the project was estimated earlier at $10 billion-$12 billion with an expected yield of 3 billion-4 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
The consortium that won the tender to the Skifska PSA offered a special payment totaling about $325 million.
