Last year, an American company, Trident Acquisitions, won a competitive tender to develop the offshore block

Last year, an American company, Trident Acquisitions, won a competitive tender to develop the offshore block. The incoming Zelenskiy government refused to accept the results of this ‘Poroshenko tender.’ The issue languished for one year. Last night, Ilya Ponomarev, CEO of Trident, emailed the UBN: “This story has ended as we have predicted – no major [foreign energy companies], just no one showed up. So, the government threw our $1 billion offer out of the window. [Now it] will spend taxpayers money in Naftogaz to develop this difficult project in very uncertain times, assuming all risks themselves.”