11.11.02

Ukraine may enlist Ruhrgas to plan intl. pipeline consortium project

Ukraine plans to involve Germany's Ruhrgas in drafting a financial, technical and legal model for the pre- investment phase of a project to create an international consortium to run and develop the country's gas pipeline system.

Other contributors to the pre-investment planning may include Shell and Gas de France, Yuri Boyko, chief executive of Naftohaz Ukrayiny, which will be one of the consortium members, told reporters. The companies will be invited to bid in a tender which will be held after registration formalities are complete and consortium members have met for the first time, Boyko said. The registration, he said, should not take long, and the meeting will take place in parallel with this process.

Naftohaz and Russia's Gazprom are selecting candidates for senior posts in the consortium. Boyko said that in line with the founding documents that were signed last week, the board of constituents would contain three representatives from each of the parties. The Ukrainians will appoint the general director and Russia the executive director.

The general director will be a professional, "who has worked with Ukrtranshaz," Boyko said.

Gazprom and Naftohaz a few days ago signed constitutive documents for the creation of the international consortium.

The companies will make equal contributions to the charter capital of the consortium, which will be $1 million at the initial stage, Gazprom said in a press release. The money allotted by the founders will finance pre-investment research, which should be completed by summer 2003. Officials from the joint venture will have to conduct feasibility studies of joint investment projects, find mutually acceptable schemes for drawing investments, and present calculations of expected tax payments to the Ukrainian budget.

The joint venture will be registered in Kiev under Ukrainian law.

(Interfax)

Ukraine's Naftohaz signs agreements with Libya

Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny has signed agreements with Libya's National Oil Corporation on the joint exploration, drilling and construction of known oil fields.

The Naftohaz press center said the agreements were signed during a visit by a Ukrainian delegation to Libya on November 4-5.

Naftohaz is thinking about setting up joint ventures to put some 40 mothballed fields back on stream, to build infrastructure at and put about 90 fields on stream for the first time, and to drill new wells, and repair oil drilling and transportation equipment. In all, some 140 offshore and onshore deposits are on offer to foreign companies.

Naftohaz plans to start its own program by overhauling existing wells and intensifying oil and gas production on a joint basis with Libyan and foreign companies.

By the end of this year, Naftohaz intends to open an office in Tripoli.

"Libya presents unique investment opportunities as it possesses significant reserves of low-sulfurous oil, which are in their early stages of development, a developed export infrastructure and international markets close by," Yuri Boyko, the chief executive of Naftohaz, was quoted as saying.

Around 20 foreign companies operate in Libya. They include Agip- ENI, Canadian Occidental, Lundin Oil (Sweden), Nimr Petroleum (Saudi Arabia), OMV (Austria), Pedco (South Korea), Petronas (Malaysia), Red Sea Oil (Canada), Repsol (Spain), TotalFinaElf and Germany's Veba and Wintershal.

(Interfax)