Ukraine's government will propose the State Property Fund of Ukraine should consider the return of the OJSC Rivneazot to the state ownership, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said. "We will suggest the State Property Fund should conduct checks of an agreement on the privatization of this enterprise. When this enterprise was privatized during Kuchma's rule, the objective of privatization didn't include dismissal of the employees and destruction of the enterprise," she said at a press conference on Wednesday in Kyiv.The premier added that should the facts of incompliance with the privatization agreement confirm, they would bring up the issue of returning the enterprise to ... [ Read more ]

The Ukrainian cabinet intends to transfer to the national joint stock company Naftohaz Ukrayiny a part of licenses issued by the Nadra Ukrayiny state regulator during the tenure of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko said. "All licenses which were issued unlawfully to the people close to Viktor Yanukovych - these are deposits with billions of cubic metres of gas and millions of tonnes of oil - will be transferred to Naftohaz," Tymoshenko said during a briefing on 26 August 2009.Interesting how this step would be perceived by foreign investors. Personally, I doubt that this will lead to improvement of investment climate in oil and gas sectors. It ... [ Read more ]

Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliya Timoshenko got an opportunity to correct miscalculations in the plans of offshore areas of Black and Azov seas development. Government is preparing a document that will decide the fate of oil and gas shelf. On the instruction of Vice-minister Oleksandr Turchinov five ministries - the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Fuel and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice should complete the project of the National Programme of Mineral Raw Material Base Development in Ukraine till 2030.Amendments have to take into account the norms of the project of the state targeted economic programme of carbohydrate resources ... [ Read more ]

EU/UKRAINE: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank and World Bank on Saturday agreed to provide Ukraine's Naftohaz with up to 1.7 billion dollars in loans in exchange for structural reforms to shore up the company's balance sheets and improve accountability for domestic gas payments. The financially troubled Naftogaz has struggled to make its monthly payments to Gazprom ever since Prime Ministers Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin reached a bilateral gas agreement in January, raising fears that Gazprom would cut off gas flows to Ukraine and Europe if Naftohaz proved unable to pay. According to the European Commission, which helped broker the ... [ Read more ]