Kiev is going to win in Moscow the mining rights of energy resources in the black sea area. According to the Executive Director of “Naftogaz” Otto Waterlander, local shelf contains considerable petroleum resources, which will attract serious investors and to establish the full production. However, first, Ukraine will sue Russia the right to produce hydrocarbons in the disputed territories in the European arbitration.
Despite its small hydrocarbon reserves on the shelf of the Black sea, they are the subject of fierce disputes between Russia and Ukraine. Exploitation of local resources by the company “Chernomorneftegaz”, until mid-March 2014, which belonged to Ukrainian “Naftogaz”. After the referendum in Crimea, the company was nationalized and came under the management of Russian entities.
the Main asset of “Chernomorneftegaz” is Odessa Deposit, whose reserves are relatively small — just over 20 billion cubic meters of gas. Since Soviet times they are allowed to adequately meet the needs of the Peninsula in the “blue fuel”. However, the level of gasification of the Crimea is still at a modest level — 75%, and the bar in the 80% expected to be reached until 2024.
Kiev immediately demanded compensation for lost assets and, referring to the UN Convention on the law of the sea, sent to the court of Arbitration in the Hague a lawsuit about the violation of Russia’s rights in Ukraine in hydrocarbon and biological resources of the Black and Azov seas and the Kerch Strait. Later, Naftogaz has initiated a second trial with the requirement to indemnify for the property at the disposal of Russia after the Crimea, — the money Kiev is trying to collect for drilling rigs, pipelines, oil and gas wells. The amount was initially about $8 billion As said Executive Director of the Ukrainian commodity of the concern Yuriy Vitrenko, General litigation claims to our country has exceeded $17 billion. the Final decision on the Crimean assets of the Arbitration court in the Hague will announce before the end of the year, said the adviser to the head of Board of “Naftogaz” Elena zerkal.
the Russian side believes that the European arbitration does not have the necessary legal rights for the full consideration of the trial, as the claims of the Kiev concern of sovereignty over Crimea and may not be executed on the basis of procedural rules of the UN Convention.
meanwhile, as experts believe, the struggle for the black sea shelf between Russia and Ukraine resembles the division of skin of not killed bear. International companies conducting investigations of water area in the middle of 1990-ies, estimated theoretical gas deposits on the black sea shelf 1-3,5 trillion cubic meters, and oil — about 500 million tons. At current extraction and consumption of fuel in the country these resources Square should be enough for at least half a century.
however, the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resource base of the Black sea, especially the financing of production, is scarce. Investments by local industrial associations got by a residual principle. The latest proposals from the foreign partners were made in December 2013, when the British-Dutch Shell and us Chevron has promised to arrange in the Square analogue of the “shale gas revolution” and to invest up to $10 billion exactly a year Later they announced the withdrawal from the Ukraine and closed its offices there. Similar shale projects have invested heavily Polish financial structure, but drilled about 70 wells — they turned the work on the Ukrainian sections of the black sea shelf.
the Last dimension of the deposits of the waters was conducted at a time when the Crimea and its main mining enterprises passed to the control of Russia. The result of geophysical surveys, particularly in the area of the Tuapse trough, was discovered about a hundred of the promising deposits of oil and gas. However, even according to preliminary estimates, investment in their development must be at least $55 billion to invest, which not under force not only to the Ukrainian government, but also involved international companies.
According to the leading expert of the national energy security Fund Igor Yushkov, attempted production of hydrocarbons Ukraine in the Russian territorial waters will be stopped as a violation of the state border. Moreover, the scandal may well get politically motivated and tantamount to a detention of Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait in 2018.
In turn, the interest of foreign investors to the development of the black sea deposits is of a purely abstract nature, says the co-chair of the energy strategies Foundation Dmytro Marunych. The political atmosphere prevailing at present in Ukraine, is not conducive to long-term investment, even in these promising projects, as gazoneftjanykh.
