Exxon, Shell bid for Black Sea oil to get nod

Ukraine plans to announce that a group of oil & gas companies including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Romania’s OMV Petron and Ukraine’s Nadra won a tender to explore the Skifska field in the Black Sea today, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The winning bidders promised to pay almost twice as much as the minimum of USD 200 mln called for by initial exploration phase plans and USD 300 mln upfront to sign the production sharing agreement within a year. Earlier this year, Ukraine selected Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell to develop onshore exploration projects.

Brad Wells: The granting of rights to global oil & gas majors is an important milestone for the Ukrainian government, which has traditionally tightly held on to energy projects. In turn, the fact that these players are willing to play ball in Ukraine is clearly a positive signal in terms of Ukraine’s investment climate.