The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to terminate the product-sharing agreement that was signed with Vanco International Ltd (Virgin Islands) for oil and gas deposits at the Black Sea shelf's Prykerchenskyi block.
First Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov announced this to journalists.
"The Cabinet of Ministers has now made the decision to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement that was signed with Vanco despite the fact that the Prosecutor-General's Office is providing cover for this agreement," Turchynov said.
He stressed that he considered the agreement to be one of the largest corruption schemes implemented in Ukraine and assured journalists that the government would not return the Prykerchenskyi block to the Vanco company under any circumstances.
Moreover, Turchynov expressed the hope that the United States authorities would also show interest in the situation surrounding Vanco because, according to him, the United States' Vanco Energy Company (the parent company of Vanco International) was forced to act as an intermediary during implementation of the scheme.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, President Viktor Yuschenko has set up an interagency working group to investigate whether any laws were violated during the organization of a competition among investors in 2006 for the right to develop oil and gas deposits at the Black Sea shelf's Prykerchenskyi block, which was won by Vanco International Ltd.
The Cabinet of Ministers declared Vanco International Ltd., a subsidiary of Vanco Energy Company (United States), as the winner of the competition for the right to develop the Prykerchenskyi block on the Black Sea's continental shelf in April 2006.
The Cabinet of Ministers and Vanco International Ltd. signed a product-sharing agreement for the Prykerchenskyi block on October 19, 2007.
Vanco International Ltd. later ceded the right to develop oil and gas deposits at the Prykerchenskyi block to Vanco Prykerchenska Ltd (Virgin Islands), whose founders have not been disclosed.
This is one of the reasons for the Environmental Protection Ministry's decision to cancel the Vanco Prykerchenska Ltd's license to develop the Prykerchenskyi block on April 25.
In response, Vanco Prykerchenska Ltd has launched arbitration proceedings against the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Prosecutor-General's Office considers the Environmental Protection Ministry's cancellation of Vanco Prykerchenska Ltd's license to develop the Prykerchenskyi block as illegal.
