Ukrnafta receives bids from six cos for joint development of 15 fields
MOSCOW. July 8 (Interfax) - Ukrnafta has received bids from six companies to jointly develop 15 of the 21 fields offered for investment in 2023, said Denis Kudin, the company's executive vice president for corporate strategy and development.
"We've received bids from six companies for 15 fields. There were none for six fields, and for some only one bid was received, for others there were two, so we have to hold a kind of internal contest," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying at the fourth conference on energy law in Kiev on Friday.
Kudin said the biggest offer of investment in a single field was $100 million, and the smallest was $7 million, the latter being for the smallest deposit.
"At present the process (of finding investors to jointly develop deposits) is ongoing. We have got through the stage of accepting and evaluating bids, and we have finalized the commercial terms as potential investors see them. The next stage is for or supervisor board to approve these terms, for the interdepartmental commission under the Energy Ministry to review them and for the Cabinet of Ministers to endorse them. This is the process, we hope to complete it before the end of the calendar year," Kudin said.
He said that during the search for investors, Ukrnafta approached about 200 companies, and negotiated with several companies at industry conferences. More than 50 potential investors responded, and 35 companies passed compliance and were admitted to the Virtual Data Room with detailed information about deposits.
Kudin said "companies submitted proposals on average 1.5 times better than we came up with, having formed our own vision of this five-year initial program."
Describing the search for investors, Kudin said the company ranked them by country - Canada, America, Britain, the EU. It approached them proactively, and also put notices in the press, on the website and at all possible industry events.
Regarding the selection of the 21 fields, Kudin said that according to criteria set down in the law on production sharing agreements, "these are the worst, most difficult to develop, the most depleted (of 89 Ukrnafta fields), requiring the use of costly, the most advanced technologies." Data going back 80 year was digitalized in order to evaluate them.
Kudin said that despite the crisis, foreign companies were willing to work in Ukraine and, in particular, engage in development.
"We are not talking about top public companies where decision are made by supervisory boards. These are generally middle-tier privately owned companies where there is a specific family of owners who continue to run their own business and risk their own money. They are ready to invest $50-60-100 million," he said, adding that investors are encouraged by the opportunity to resolve disputes under English law when concluding a PSA.
In general, he said some $10 billion-15 billion needed to be invested in oil production over 10 years to achieve annual production volumes of 10 million tonnes to ensure Ukraine's energy independence in this field.
Ukrnafta said at the end of 2023 that 25 companies were already interested in cooperation as part of a tender for the joint development of 21 fields (bids were accepted until March 1, 2024), including Ukrainian and companies from seven countries in Europe and North America.
The company says its category 2P reserves, that is, proved and probable reserves, access to which Ukrnafta is offering to potential partners, are more than 12 million tonnes of gas.
Ukrnafta increased production of oil with condensate by 39,900 tonnes or 3% to 1,409,900 tonnes in 2023. Production of natural and associated petroleum gas increased by 60.4 mcm or 5.8% to 1.097 billion cubic meters.
Ukrnafta has the strategic goal of doubling oil and natural gas production by 2027, to 3 million tonnes and 2 billion cubic meters, respectively.
Ukrnafta is Ukraine's largest oil producer and operator of the national chain of filling stations. The company started to operate the Glusco network in March 2024 and now operates 545 filling stations in total - 460 under its own brand and 85 under management.
The company is carrying out a comprehensive program of resuming its operations and updating the format of filling stations of its chain. Since February 2023, Ukrnafta has been issuing its fuel coupons and NAFTACard cards sold to legal entities and individuals by Ukrnafta-Postach LLC.
The biggest shareholder is Naftogaz with 50% plus one share. The Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ruled on November 5, 2022 to expropriate Ukrnafta shares owned by private shareholders - that stake is now controlled by the Defense Ministry.