The Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine has initiated a frank talk with the journalists. The topics of discussion were the reality of the industry and the challenges it is facing. Things not talked about in the media and not mentioned by the government officials were shared. AGPU has presented the world upstream trends, and forecasted the future for the Ukrainian market in the years to come. The most painful topic was the taxation from 2017.
The participants were jointly seeking for the answer to the questions:
How to restore the trust of investors after such investors as Shell and Chevron were lost?
How to free Ukraine from import dependency, how to develop the services market?

A representative lesson was the workshop from gas producers on how the economics of upstream are calculated.
The calculations have helped the participants reach the conclusion that the industry is stagnating. Current "brave" statements of government officials about increased gas production in four years have nothing in common with the reality of the upstream industry.

The reality today is that the average royalty and equivalent payments rate in Poland is 0.7%, in Czech Republic – 5%, in the UK - 6%, in Bulgaria – 7.7%, in Italy - 11.7%, in Turkey - 12.5%, in Romania – 15%, while in Ukraine – 29.5%.

The myth that cost of production of 1000 cm is equal to $20 was refuted. Today the actual minimum cost with optimistic assumptions is equal to $100.

As stated by one of the maitres of the domestic media: "I have no objections to implementation of a 12% royalty rate on new wells from 2017. Why did the industry nurture this idea for so long? Look for experts in the Government and lobby it. This industry is strategic, and it is unacceptable to lose it."