Britain's Cadogan Petroleum Plc and Ukraine's NJSC Nadra Ukrainy have completed an agreement to sell 50.01% of the joint venture LLC Westgasinvest, located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, to Italy's Eni S.p.A., Cagodan said in a press release.
“LLC Westgasinvest currently holds subsoil rights to nine
unconventional (shale) gas license areas in the Lviv Basin of Ukraine,
totaling approximately 3,800 square kilometers of acreage. The Lviv
Basin is considered to be one of the most attractive basins in Europe
for the exploration of unconventional gas, being a continuation of the
Lublin Basin in Poland which has already attracted substantial interest
from the hydrocarbon industry,” the press release said.
“Under the transaction, Eni acquires 50.01% of LLC Westgasinvest from
the joint venture parties and will fund an initial exploration program.
Cadogan will retain ownership of 15% of LLC Westgasinvest,” it said.
According to Interfax’s SPARK database, when Cadogan announced the
deal in the middle of June, Nadra Ukrainy owned 84.99% of
Westgasinvest’s capital, and Cadogan owned 15.01%.
Last year, Eni bought 30% of Pokrovskoe Petroleum B.V. and 60% of
Zagoryanska Petroleum B.V. (both based in the Netherlands) from Cadogan.
These two companies own licenses to develop the Pokrovskoe and
Zagoryanska oil and gas fields in Ukraine.
In addition, Eni has plans to jointly start exploring shale gas in western Ukraine with Cadogan at the end of this year.
According to the State Geology and Subsurface Resource Service of
Ukraine, Eni has presented a $55-million geological survey program for
2012-2015 to the regulator. Under this program the Italian company will
implement four exploration clusters, on each of which it will use
vertical and horizontal drilling technology, as well as hydraulic
fracturing.
