Offshore staff
(Black Sea) - Vanco International Ltd. has won a competitive tender for the right to conclude a production sharing agreement with the government of Ukraine for the highly prospective Prykerchenska tender area located in the Black Sea, offshore Ukraine.
This will be Ukraine's first deepwater license award and Ukraine's first production sharing agreement for hydrocarbons.
JNR Eastern Investments Ltd., a London investment company representing the interests of the Rothschild family, is an equal partner in Vanco's application.
Other contenders for the block included Shell (joint bid with ExxonMobil) and Hunt Overseas Oil Co., TPAO (Turkiye Petrolleri), bidding with Alfex One Ltd., and UkrNafta, Ukraine's largest oil company.
The Prykerchenska PSA tender area covers 3.2 million acres (12,900 sq km) and is located offshore the Crimea near the Kerch region where water depths range from 500 m to over 2,000 m.
In its northern shallower part, the tender area contains a prominent Tertiary folded belt with numerous prospective structures that are on trend with the recently announced Subotina oil and gas discovery.
The deeper (below 2,000 m) southern part of the block contains large structural closures, including the Tetyaev High.
Ukraine hopes to boost its gas output from its offshore natural gas deposits by a third to 30 bcm annually within the next several years.
The Ukrainian government expects that this Kerch region project could generate up to $2 billion in foreign direct investment into oil and gas exploration and extraction.
Since 1996, Vanco has achieved deepwater success as a license holder offshore in West Africa. Active offshore Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Madagascar.
Vanco achieved successful operation of two deepwater wells in the last two years: a 2,125-m well offshore Morocco in 2004 - a first for the country, and a 3,100-m well offshore Cote d'Ivoire last year.
04/26/06
