Shell and the British Council in Ukraine chose the winners of the competition amongst Ukrainian universities, research institutes and NGOs within the “Ukrainian Unconventional Gas Institute”. Competition started in April earlier this year.
The aim of the project is sharing experience between Ukrainian and foreign partners; improving knowledge, skills and qualification of specialists involved in the area of exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons. The project implies search for innovative solutions for responsible development of unconventional gas in Ukraine and raising public awareness on the issue.
In total 39 project proposals were received from universities and organizations from all over Ukraine. Seven applications from Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv qualified.
Project proposals were considered in the framework of three announced subject areas:
- Natural gas as an energy source in Ukraine;
- Best global practices for environment protection during implementation of projects for exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons;
- Social and economic benefits from implementation of projects for exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons for local communities, districts and regions.
The socio-economic impact of projects for exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons for local communities, districts and regions attracted most attention. Four proposals were selected in this category:
- Youth NGO "Institute for Sustainable Development" (Kharkiv) and its project proposal "Oil and gas companies as partners for sustainable development of communities". The purpose of the project is to show case opportunities and benefits of cooperation with oil and gas companies to local communities.
- Analytical Center "Dixi Group" (Kyiv) with its project "Strengthening public support for the development of unconventional gas as a component of economic reforms". This project requires creation of an international group of experts to study the socio-economic results of exploration and production of unconventional gas in Kharkiv region.
- Science Park "Radio Electronics and Computer Science" (Kharkiv) with its project "Creating a geo-information system of monitoring the impact of hydrocarbons exploration and production for the socio-economic development of local communities of Kharkiv region". Within the project a geo-information system for monitoring the impact of exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the Kharkiv region will be created and put on the Internet for free access. The system will display places where exploration and production of gas is being conducted and will include analytical information about the state of the environment, labor market, level of budget revenues and other data per locations. In each of the 466 local councils of Kharkiv region specialists for administrating data in this system will be trained.
- Scientific-Technical Center «Psycheа» (Kyiv) with the project "Developing the capacity of local government representatives and local communities to implement socio-economic benefits of projects for exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons in Ukraine". The project will help to train local government representatives on the rights, opportunities and benefits for communities from gas development and how the community can implement these socio-economic benefits.
Within the topic “Natural gas as an energy source in Ukraine” two project proposals were chosen:
- Donetsk National Technical University (Donetsk) with a proposal "Creating a database on environmental risks assessments for underground, open and down-hole methods of energy production". This project will help creating a data bank of the impact on the biosphere of various energy production enterprises of Donetsk region and conducting a comparative analysis of the impact of different types of energy production (coal, gas) on the environmental situation of the Donbass region.
- NGO "New Energy" (Kharkiv) with its project "Natural gas as the route to sustainable economic development". Project’s objective is to inform the society about simple ways of saving energy and improving energy efficiency of households in the regions.
Within the topic “Best global practices for environment protection during implementation of projects for exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons” the following project proposal won:
- KT-Energy (Kyiv) with the project "Improvement of permitting procedures and the process of informing the public on the topic of exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons based on global best practices". Specialists of the company will analyze the existing permitting procedures, duplication of functions and will reveal weaknesses in the permitting process in order to create an effective system of regulation of the industry in Ukraine based on the examples of Canada, the UK and Poland.
The winners will receive grants in the amount of $10,000 to $50,000.
“Ukrainian Unconventional Gas Institute” is the project conducted by Shell under the Yuzivska PSA. It includes studying of non-technical aspects related to exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbons. The non-technical component of the “Ukrainian Unconventional Gas Institute” is aimed at raising awareness and research of industry’s economic, environmental and social influence on the state, regional and local development.
British Council in Ukraine encourages the creation of a database for fruitful cooperation in the energy sphere between Ukraine and the United Kingdom as part of the "Internationalization of higher education".