London’s Geological Society was crowded Tuesday with multinational energy company representatives seeking to learn about Ukraine opening its oil and gas market.

London’s Geological Society was crowded Tuesday with multinational energy company representatives seeking to learn about Ukraine opening its oil and gas market. The draw was information about 30 onshore oil and gas blocks going up for online auction this year and about production sharing agreements for 12 onshore blocks, covering 21,000 square kilometers. Attending the Ukrainian Gas Exploration & Production Forum were: Shell, ExxonMobil, Croatia’s INA, Ukraine’s Arawak Energy, Anglo-French Perenco, Hungary’s MOL, Holland’s Sand Hill Petroleum, Houston’s Viking Energy Group, and New York’s Trident Acquisitions. The new production sharing agreements will “provide the foreign investor with the highest level of investment protection available in Ukraine,” said Natalia Boyko, deputy minister for European Integration of Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Ministry.