海角大神

Ukraine鈥檚 bid to rid itself of its dependence on Russian energy just took a huge hit.

Chevron聽announced聽that it was pulling out of a deal that it made with the Ukrainian government to develop shale gas in western Ukraine. The $10 billion deal was signed before the ouster of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.聽

Chevron indicated that it was unsatisfied with the tax regime in Ukraine, after the post-Yanukovych government raised energy taxes. 鈥淲e have just terminated that PSA (product sharing agreement),鈥� said Peter Clark, Chevron鈥檚 country manager in Ukraine, according to聽Kyiv Post. 鈥淲hen it was signed, things had to be done, but not all of them got done.鈥�

The deal with Chevron was signed in November 2013, and called for Chevron to聽invest $350 million聽over the first two to three years to develop Ukraine鈥檚 Olesska field in the western part of the country. The agreement kept open the possibility of ramping up investments to $10 billion over the course of Chevron鈥檚 50-year lease. The Olesska field was聽expected to produce聽10 billion cubic meters of gas each year when it was up and running.(Related:聽Ukraine Sends Russia Huge Advance Payment For Gas)

But Chevron insisted that it would only move forward if the Ukrainian government simplified a series of tax laws. With no action from Kyiv, Chevron has decided it cannot move forward, and informed the Ukrainian government聽on December 15聽of its intention to pull out of the deal.

The move is only the latest in a series of investment setbacks for multinational oil companies in Ukraine. In June 2014, Royal Dutch Shell decided to聽suspend operations聽on its Yuzivska field, located in eastern Ukraine due to the violence between the Ukrainian government and Russian separatists. The Yuzivska field is an 8,000 square kilometer located in Donetsk, an eastern province that has seen most of the violence in 2014. Shell decided to take a 鈥渢ime out鈥� in order to protect its personnel.

And in March, ExxonMobil had to聽put on ice聽ambitious plans to develop offshore gas fields in the Black Sea after Russia annexed Crimea. The Skifska project was expected to have amounted to a $12 billion investment that could have seen 8 to 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas produced beginning in 2017. The annexation of Crimea now puts the Skifska reserves, estimated to be in the range of 3 trillion cubic feet, in disputed territory.

Chevron was thought to be聽better situated聽than Shell since its concession was located in the west, far from the fighting. Energy analysts聽predicted聽that that Chevron鈥檚 deal could be one of the few major gas projects that would be able to survive the crisis with Russia.(Related:聽Ukraine-Russia Gas Deal Still Possible Despite Setback)

According to Chevron, Ukraine鈥檚 unfriendly tax regime did more to kill off the Olesska project than a brewing civil war in the east has. Still, Chevron鈥檚 Peter Clark says that the deal is not entirely dead yet, and the company is still working with the Ukrainian government to see if they can agree on a way forward.

In the meantime, Ukraine remains聽highly dependent聽on Russia, where it gets about 50 percent of its natural gas. Russia聽had cut off gas supplies聽to Ukraine from June through October, but the two sides came to an agreement at the end of October. With the backing of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine and Russia聽agreed聽on a price that should ensure smooth deliveries through at least the first quarter of 2015. With winter setting in, that deal likely calmed the nerves of many Ukrainians worried about heating over the next several months.

But after several gas deals have fallen through, the longer-term answer for Ukraine鈥檚 energy security is much less certain.

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