Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINIAN NAFTOGAZ STRENGTHENING GEOLOGICAL DIRECTION

Naftogaz plans to focus its efforts on the growth of new hydrocarbon resources and, for this purpose, increases the role of the geological direction, the director of the Exploration and Production division of the group, Oleksandr Romaniuk, has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“It all starts with geology. We want to create the best geological expertise in the region, we believe that we can do it. We have a strong geological school, which began to be supported by legionnaires, including our guys who worked in Western companies. We now have a new head of the geological direction, who grew up in foreign oil and gas companies. But we do not need expertise for the sake of expertise. We want to radically change the situation with the resource base, so we are changing the structure,” he said.
According to him, in order to gain access to all available geological information and developments of scientists, the group signs agreements with Nadra Ukrainy, the Ukrainian State Geological Research Institute, the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
“In addition, we attract external expertise, which will help structure and more correctly determine the goals. We have created an expert council on the basis of the division, which attracted people who built the industry and have unique knowledge about Ukrainian subsoil,” Romaniuk added.
The top manager of Naftogaz noted that the group’s priorities are areas where it is possible to increase proven reserves from 50 billion cubic meters, since the company’s existing resource base does not compensate for the natural decline in production.

,