OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2012. The Government of Ukraine is ready to establish partnership relations with companies which want to participate in shale gas production in Ukraine.

Yuriy Boyko said this during the international conference "Natural gas and Ukraine's energy future" which took place recently in Kyiv. At the conference IHS CERA presented its conclusions on the possibilities of the gas market of Ukraine.

"The government is ready to establish partnership relations with companies, which are able to enter the business of shale gas in Ukraine, to help them establish contacts with the ministries and departments" - the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Boyko said.

The Minister noted that through this conference and the work of the IHS CERA appeared to view of steps that will realize the potential of Ukraine for the extraction of 70 billion cubic meters of gas per year, declared by the head of IHS CERA Daniel Yerhin.

"The current situation requires rapid action to improve the investment climate. This will enable us to get investment in the gas industry in the right amounts and implement ambitious plans for the extraction of 70 billion cubic meters of gas a year. According to Daniel Yerhina Ukraine could achieve such volumes of extraction", - Yuriy Boyko said.

IHS CERA Director Daniel Yerhin added that the implementation capacity of Ukraine's gas production from unconventional sources would provide not only additional energy, but also gave more positive results for the economy, including job creation and competitiveness.

However, Daniel Yerhin stressed that Ukraine needed investments to realize the potential. "In order to realize the potential you need to move from the investment of 1 billion dollars a year to 10 billion. These funds will come, if will be relevant investment environment and climate that allow them to come" - the head of IHS CERA said.

Yuriy Boyko and Daniel Yerhin agreed to continue cooperation in the future and thanked conference participants for effective work.