Two new drilling rigs with a carrying capacity of 450 tonnes from China’s Sichuan Honghua Petroleum Equipment arrived in Odesa seaport late on Monday, the press service of JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia has reported.
Ukrgazvydobuvannia Board Chairman Oleh Prokhorenko said that as of 2016, the average age of drilling rigs of the company was 23, and the average age of drilling rigs in Russia was 10 years and in Belarus – nine years.
“Finally, Ukraine has begun to invest in the development of its own gas production, its own drilling fleet and the exploration of its own resources. The arrival of these new drilling rigs is one of many concrete steps that will increase gas production in Ukraine,” he said.
As reported, late 2017, Ukrgazvydobuvannia signed a contract with Bentec GmbH Drilling & Oilfield Systems (Germany) to supply five drilling rigs with a capacity of 450 tonnes (2,000 HP) for $110 million. The first rig was delivered to the company in October 2018.
It is also planned to buy ten Chinese drilling rigs with a capacity of 450 tonnes.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority of Ukraine counts on the successful completion of the corporatization process by the end of 2019 if it is included in the list of strategic companies that can be corporatized before the end of 2018, head of the agency Raivis Veckagans has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“We hope that by the end of the year, the Cabinet of Ministers will decide to include us in the list of strategic companies that can be corporatized. And in this case, we aim to complete corporatization in a year, because we need to change the legislative framework,” he said.
According to Veckagans, the corporatization of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority will mean, first of all, a greater transparency of the structure for the market, as well as acceleration of administrative processes within the company.
“It is important for us after the completion of corporatization and the creation of the supervisory council to have the opportunity to manage the assets held on the balance sheet of the company and use them effectively to attract cargo traffic, that is, income,” he stated.