Chernomornaftogaz raises $425-mln loan
KYIV. April 23 (Interfax) - Offshore oil and gas company Chernomornaftogaz has raised an interest-free one-year loan of UAH3.396 billion ($425.2 million) from parent company Naftogaz Ukrainy.
The loan will be used "to fund priority investment projects, drilling and construction of existing fields, technical development, maintenance and repair of production facilities and settling accounts payable," the company said in a disclosure statement for the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
The parent company issued the subsidiary a loan of UAH3.24 billion in November last year to buy a jack-up rig.
Chernomornaftogaz and OJSC Riga Shipyard (Rigas Kugu Buvetava, Latvia) signed an agreement in Kyiv on November 2 for the delivery of the rig for around $400 million.
The drilling rig will be involved in the exploration of new deposits in the North-West part and the Kerch section of the Black Sea shelf.
Eleven potential structures have been discovered at these sections at a sea depth of 70-120 meters. Five of them have potential reserves of 70 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, and six have potential reserves of 70 million tonnes of oil. The first item to be explored under drilling operations will be the Riftova-Osetrova structure.
Chernomornaftogaz carries out offshore development in Ukrainian sections of the Black and Azov Seas. The company also produces hydrocarbons at fields in the Crimea, operates underground gas storage facilities on the Glebovsky peninsula and trunk pipelines. Naftogaz Ukrainy manages 100% of the company's stock.
The official exchange rate on April 23 was UAH 7.9857/$1.