The Ukrainian public will be informed about details of shale gas extraction in the country, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister of Ukraine Oleh Proskuriakov has promised.

"The Ecology Ministry and its public council, as well as the investors that won the bids, will actively work with the public" he said during the press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The minister said that winners have already held the roundtables in the regions they are to work with.

"We calmed the public down and explained that the signing of the agreements doesn't mean that wells would disappear and water would be poisoned in the country," he stressed.

According to the agreement signed between Ukraine and investors, priority importance would be given to ecological problems when studying and developing areas for shale gas extraction. These documents will run through all ecological studies and only afterwards will final decisions will be taken, the minister said.

Proskuriakov also said that shale gas extraction issue will be more relevant not earlier than in three years.

Head of the public council under Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Ukraine Valentyn Savitsky, in turn, drew attention to the fact that there is a strong gas lobby in Ukraine, which influences the advancement of the issue of non-traditional hydrocarbons extraction.

"Society is divided between those who are for, and those who are against. We understand that we have a strong gas lobby, and that's why public organizations are divided in such way," he said.

According to Savitsky, the over 50 experts and academics working in the ecology ministry's public council say that Ukraine has to develop shale gas extraction.