OREANDA-NEWS. September 17, 2012. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is willing to take part in laying the first well of extraction of natural gas on Olessky deposit, which will be performed by Chevron Company.

The PM announced this at a meeting with company representatives.

"We welcome the participation of Chevron Company in exploration and further exploitation of our fields. We now expect of you vigorous steps in this project implementation and I'm ready to personally take part in laying the first well," said Mykola Azarov. Meanwhile, he stressed the development and commencement of production of hydrocarbons are to be performed as much as possible safely, with minimal impact to an environment.

In turn, Derek Mahness, the Chevron Onshore Europe general manager, congratulated the Prime Minister on transparent, absolutely fair tendering and noted that the company also pays great attention to the safety of hydrocarbons extraction. "I'd like to congratulate the Government with the fact that have successfully been passed the last three tenders. They were very open and transparent and indicate Ukraine has really created a favorable investment climate. The Chevron is willing to very quickly launch the first gas production. We're going to work quickly and safely in partnership with the Government," said Derek Mahness.

The Prime Minister assured that all the legal procedures for this project implementation would be performed in the short term.

Recall, the Chevron Company has been the winner of the tender for signing production sharing agreement on Olessky site (the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Regions). The projected resources areas have been estimated at 3 trillion cubic meters of gas. At the stage of geological exploration, it's planned to attract UAH 1.3 bln investment and UAH 25 bln - at the stage of industrial development.