Texas company reviews prospects of sending liquefied natural gas to a Ukrainian market under the thumb of Russian energy company Gazprom. File Photo by UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov

HOUSTON, July 15 (UPI) -- A Texas-based company, led in part by a former Conoco Phillips veteran, said it was reviewing the prospects of shipping liquefied natural gas to Ukraine.

Frontera Resources Corp. said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine's state-run energy company Naftogaz to work in the upstream, or exploration and production, sector in Ukraine as well as study the potential to deliver liquefied natural gas from its work in Caucasus country Georgia.


"I strongly believe that our closer work with Naftogaz will open avenues to strategically supply Ukraine with LNG from across the Black Sea," Steve Nicandros, former Conoco brass and Frontera's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "This will serve to diversify the country's supply of natural gas and, by doing so, bring Georgia to the forefront as a strategic supplier of natural gas to Europe."

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili was on hand for the November opening of a transport terminal for a pipeline at the port city of Poti to the European market that's part of a broader package of transit networks stemming from the Shah Deniz gas project in Azerbaijan.

Shah Deniz will deliver about 560 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, with sales scheduled for Georgia and Turkey in 2018 and the rest to Europe the following year.

Europe views Shah Deniz as a means to diversify a natural gas market dependent on Russia. For Georgia, a former Soviet republic, it's part of a broader shift away from the Kremlin. Georgia tilted away from Russia after both sides fought over the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is at the center of the European debate over energy security. While the European market gets about a quarter of its gas needs from Russia, most of that runs through Soviet-networks in Ukraine.

Naftogaz in early July said it would stop purchasing gas from Russia until new contracts are brokered, though supplies to the European market would continue. Gas purchases from Russia are already down by more than 50 percent.