Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) , which signed a $10 billion shale gas deal with the Ukrainian government this year, expects to start drilling in the Yuzivska field next year. Shell will need to drill as many as 15 wells to complete the initial exploration appraisal of the 8,000 square-kilometer (3,100 square-mile) Yuzivska field in the eastern part of the country, Graham Tiley, the country manager of Shell Ukraine , said in an interview in Kiev On Nov. 6. Separately, the company has also completed drilling its first well in the Kharkiv region and is preparing to drill two more next year, he said. Ukraine, which depends on expensive Russian gas imports to cover more than 60 percent of its consumption, is pushing to develop its own reserves, both onshore and offshore, in the Black Sea . The government signed a production-sharing agreement with Chevron Corp. (CVX) yesterday for […]