ASTANA, Jan. 11 ??“ Ukraine is close to signing an agreement with Kazakhstan opening way for exploration and extraction of crude oil and natural gas from lucrative oil and gas fields, an official said.

Ukraine may get access to fields in Kazakhstan that are estimated to contain 100 mln metric tons of oil and 50 bln cubic meters of natural gas, Oleksiy Ivchenko, the head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny said.