Dutch Yuzgas ready to invest 200 mln USD in shale gas project in Ukraine

Dutch company Yuzgas B.V. is ready to invest 200 million U.S. dollars within the next five years to explore shale gas deposits in the Yuzovska field in eastern Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian energy official announced on Wednesday.

"Within the first year, the investment could reach 20 (million) to 30 million dollars," Viktor Nazarkevych, the head of the state company Nadra Yuzovska, which runs the Yuzovska field, told reporters during a press conference in Kiev.

The Dutch company is ready to drill the first well within a year if the Ukrainian government approves it as a partner to extract shale gas in Yuzovska area, Nazarkevych said.

The Yuzgas B.V., which was set up by Emerstone Energy investment fund, has won a bid for shale gas exploration in Ukraine in July.

To start its work on the Yuzovska field, the company has to sign a production-sharing agreement with the Ukrainian government.

Last year, Royal Dutch Shell plc, the Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company, withdrew from a treaty with Kiev on Yuzovska field development citing "force majeure circumstances."

The Yuzovska field, located in the Kharkov and Donetsk regions, has estimated reserves of between 3 trillion and 4 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Since April 2014, hostilities between government forces and pro-independence rebels had been underway in the area in eastern Ukraine, which is close to the Yuzovska gas field. Endi