KIEV, Oct. 31 ??“ Ukraine will probably invite Gazprom, a Russian state-controlled gas monopoly, for assistance in exploration and extraction of crude oil and natural gas offshore the Black Sea, an industry executive said Tuesday.

Anatoliy Prysiazhniuk, the recently appointed head of ChornomorNaftoGaz, Ukraine??™s only producer of oil and gas from the Black Sea, said the plan to attract the Russian company had been backed by the government.