What is Chornomornaftogaz

Chornomornaftogaz started in 1978 as a Soviet-era enterprise tasked with developing oil and gas resources in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It is legally a subsidiary of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s national oil and gas company. Over decades, Chornomornaftogaz built up a network of offshore fields, drilling rigs, and fixed platforms, exploring hydrocarbon deposits off the coast of Crimea and in other parts of the northwestern Black Sea shelf.

By 2013, the company reported production and reserves across multiple offshore fields. Its licensed fields include gas, oil, and condensate deposits such as Odeske, Shtormove, Prykerchenske, Holitsynske, Arkhangelske, Bezimenne, Subotinske, and Strilkove.

Chornomornaftogaz owned several offshore platforms: four jack-up rigs (self-elevating drilling units) and eight fixed drilling platforms. Among those jack-ups were the ones later dubbed the “Boiko towers.”

What are the “Boiko towers” and why that name

“Boiko towers” (in Ukrainian, “вишки Бойка”) refer to a set of drilling platforms that belonged to Chornomornaftogaz. The name comes from Yuriy Boyko, who served as Ukraine’s energy minister when Chornomornaftogaz acquired two of the rigs. Observers criticized the purchase because the company paid much more than the build cost.

Specifically, the two rigs were: B312 (known as Petro Godovanets, built in 2010) and B319 (known as Ukraina — sometimes referred to as “Nezalezhnist”, built in 2012).

The acquisition passed through offshore intermediaries, and Chornomornaftogaz reportedly paid roughly 400 million dollars more than direct purchase from the rig builder. That cost discrepancy triggered allegations of embezzlement and corruption under Boyko’s time.

Because these rigs were so strongly associated with the controversial purchase under Boyko, they gained the informal name “Boiko towers.”

Estimated capacity and Ukrainian offshore resources

The total resources assigned to Chornomornaftogaz fields (gas, oil and condensate) have been estimated as follows: 58.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, 1.231 million tons of gas condensate, and 2.53 million tons of crude oil.

These are substantial hydrocarbon reserves, and the offshore fields under Chornomornaftogaz’s license once contributed a meaningful share of Ukraine’s domestic gas and oil production—though not dominant.

As an example, one of their major fields was the Shtormove gas field — an offshore Black Sea gas site discovered decades ago. Before 2014, it produced natural gas for Ukraine.

Other fields, like the Subbotinske oil field, lay near Crimea; development had advanced through seismic work and deep drilling by 2005–2011.

So in total, Ukraine’s offshore shelf had a sizeable resource base controlled by Chornomornaftogaz — making its platforms economically and strategically important.

Types and location of the rigs

Chornomornaftogaz’s offshore fleet included:

• Jack-up rigs (self-elevating drilling platforms), including the four named rigs: Syvash, Tavrida, Petro Godovanets, and Nezalezhnist (Ukraina).
• Fixed drilling platforms (eight of them) — used for extraction from offshore wells on the Black Sea shelf.

Before 2014, some of these rigs stood in Ukrainian territorial waters, for example on the Odesa gas field.

The two rigs labeled “Boiko towers”—Petro Godovanets and Ukraina—were floating manned drilling units intended for gas and oil production.

Chronology of battles and control

March 2014:

• Russian forces captured these Ukrainian drilling platforms (Petro Godovanets, Ukraina, as well as other rigs such as Tavrida and Syvash), while the rigs stood in Ukrainian territorial waters on the Odesa gas field.

December 2015:

• According to open sources, the rigs were relocated by Russia to new locations closer to the Crimean coast — to what is called the Golitsyn field.
• The platforms for military use. They installed radar, hydroacoustic systems and used the rigs for maritime surveillance, helicopter landing pads and possibly as logistics nodes.

June 2022:

• Ukrainian forces struck the rigs with missile strikes. According to Crimean authorities, five people were rescued and three wounded.

11 September 2023:

• The main intelligence agency of Ukraine reported that special forces carried out an operation and regained control over all “Boiko towers” — the four platforms: Petro Godovanets, Ukraina, Tavrida and Syvash.
• The security service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed Russian radar equipment left on seized gas extraction platforms using a combined sea- and air drone strike. That operation damaged the radar system, storage facilities and living quarters on the platform.

Autumn 2025:

• According to reports, the jack-up rig Syvash (one of the Boiko Towers) came under Ukrainian attack once again. Ukrainian sources noted this rig can drill wells up to 6 kilometres deep.
• Clashes at sea continue near other former Chornomornaftogaz rigs. According to recent reports, Ukrainian special operations units are still fighting for control over some platforms in the Black Sea shelf.

Thus, control over the rigs shifted repeatedly: from Ukraine before 2014, to Russia (2014–2023), then back to Ukraine in 2023, with active conflict and military operations around them continuing through 2025.

Who is now controlling them — and are there people there

As of September 2023, Ukrainian special forces reportedly regained control of all four of the so-called Boiko Towers — Petro Godovanets, Ukraina, Tavrida and Syvash.

Since then, Ukrainian state control formally returned, though the platforms remain contested. In May 2025, the security service destroyed radar and other equipment that Russian forces had left behind.

In November 2025, the rig Syvash remains a target of Ukrainian strikes against Russian personnel who had occupied it.

At least sometimes the platforms still host—or recently hosted—human presence: military personnel or crews, particularly when Russia used them as surveillance bases.

But after Ukraine re-took control and struck radar and installations, the platforms may no longer be actively operated for industrial gas or oil extraction. Some sources note that the extraction operations ceased entirely after Russia’s takeover.

Why Ukrainian oil rigs in the Black Sea matter now

These rigs—once purely economic assets belonging to Chornomornaftogaz—now lie at the heart of a strategic contest for control of the Black Sea. The “Boiko towers” carry value beyond hydrocarbons: they have become observation posts, radar bases, helicopter pads, and forward staging grounds for military forces.

Recovering them matters not only for Ukraine’s energy security and economic interests, but also for maritime control, surveillance and defense capability in the Black Sea region.

Still, the fact that Ukrainian forces continue to launch strikes against rigs as of late 2025 indicates the situation remains fragile. The rigs remain contested strategic objects, not stable industrial infrastructure.