Ukrainian minister seeks Japan's help in exploring natural gas, oil+

KIEV, June 24 Kyodo -
Ukrainian Economics Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn has called on Japan to provide
aid in the exploration of his country's natural gas and oil resources, saying
it will offer Japan stable supplies of fuel tapped as a result of such
cooperation.

Danylyshyn said in an interview with Kyodo News on Tuesday that the Ukrainian
government would begin searching for offshore oil and gas in the Sea of Azov
and the Black Sea immediately if Japan provided relevant assistance.
Developing energy fields in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea -- two areas
believed to have huge energy reserves -- is ''important'' for Ukrainian
resources development, he said.
Ukraine is facing the urgent necessity of developing domestic energy sources
due to sharp gas price markups by Russia, whose gas monopoly OAO Gazprom has
supplied a large part of Ukraine's annual gas consumption. On Jan. 1, Gazprom
induced a supply crisis by switching off gas to Ukraine.
Ukraine wants to attract huge direct investment from Japan by creating a
mechanism to compensate foreign investors for any losses they might incur as a
result of investments in Ukraine, Danylyshyn said.
A large part of domestically produced natural gas in Ukraine is consumed in
heating houses, so Ukraine is interested in introducing Japan's energy
conservation technology in a range of fields, including saving energy in
heating homes, he said.
If this assistance were provided, Ukraine would consider selling its emission
quotas for greenhouse gases to Japan in a stable manner.
Danylyshyn noted that the obsolete factories Ukraine has been running in its
key industrial sectors such as the steel industry since before the breakup of
the Soviet Union consume three to four times the amount of energy that modern
factories in developed countries consume.
He said the Ukrainian government would not deviate from the key policy tenets
of democratization and economic deregulation, whoever wins the next
presidential election slated for Jan. 17.
==Kyodo