Ukraine needs a real audit of "dormant" gas fields, the development licenses for which are not being used. Top market players are ready to acquire gas production rights and invest now. Oleksandr Katsuba, owner of "ALFA GAZ" company, told about this in an interview with UNN.
Oleksandr Katsuba called the lack of a real audit of "dormant" fields his biggest pain for the industry.
More than 200-300 licenses remain "dormant." Their owners do nothing: no drilling, no seismic surveys. These are just assets "on paper." The audit, which was talked about so much, happened only formally. From inside the market, we clearly see who is really working and who is just holding a piece of paper hoping to resell. The state needs political will to withdraw these licenses and put them up for open, transparent auctions. The top 10 market players are ready to buy them tomorrow, invest money, create jobs, and provide real gas to the system. So far, there is no such impetus
At the same time, the businessman does not see prospects for returning to the development of the Black Sea shelf in the coming years.
I'll be realistic — we can forget about the shelf for the next few years. And it's not just about mines. We don't have our own fleet, no drilling rigs for the sea, no aviation for logistics. Everything that "Chornomornaftogaz" had either remained in occupied Crimea or was destroyed. Today, "Chornomornaftogaz" is an office in Kyiv without real capacities. To start production near Odesa, we need to build all the infrastructure from scratch. This is billions of dollars. Ukraine does not have such gigantic deposits as Norway for it to pay off quickly. An investor will not go where the cost of production exceeds the market price of gas