KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has selected a consortium led by ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to explore the Skifska oil and gas field on its Black Sea shelf, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Eduard Stavitsky said on Wednesday.
"The government has supported a proposal ... to sign a production sharing agreement naming a group of companies, led by ExxonMobil as operator, the winner (of the tender)," Stavitsky told reporters.
Skifska, predominantly a gas field, has reserves of 200 to 250 billion cubic meters of gas, he said, without specifying whether those were recoverable, and is expected to eventually produce 5 billion cubic meters a year.
Russia's LUKOIL
Stavitsky said the consortium, which also includes Romania's OMV Petrom and Ukrainian state company Nadra Ukrainy, would start work on the field this year.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Jane Baird)