Ukraine drills for gas in its territories

Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Boyko has said his country was to depend on its rich resources available in its territories including natural gas and rock oil in a period of seven to 10 years before it may become managed to export gas to world markets. In remarks he gave here on Wednesday, Yury Boyko said that experts from western energy agencies and companies have emphasized that gas reserves in the Ukrainian territories amount to 5 trillion cubic meters adding that his country would turn into a gas exporter not a gas importer country. The Ukrainian Energy Ministry had recently signed a contract with shell company to the value of USD 800 million for drilling for gas in the ukrainian lands . Ukraine , Yury Boyko added, will also sign similar contracts with five world companies within the coming three months. Ukraine is a net energy importer. The main imports are oil and natural gas, primarily from Russia. In 1998, the Ukraine imported an estimated 344,000 bpd of oil and almost 2.0 tcf of natural gas. The primary domestic energy resources include coal and nuclear power. Ukraine contains proven oil reserves of 395 mm barrels, most of them located in the Dnieper-Donets basin, the major oil and gas producing region located in the eastern part of the country. The oldest producing region is the Precarpathian Basin, located in western Ukraine. Over the last 20 years, the country''s oil production has declined by more than 60 %.