On October 24-25, the 20th international conference Oil and Gas 2017 was held.

The executive director of the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine, Roman Opimakh, has told in his speech about the current state of the gas production industry, gas production rates, and primary steps to achieve energy independence of Ukraine.

The industry's expectations are summarized in the Government's Concept for Development of Ukraine's Gas Production Industry by 2020. Unfortunately, the plan is currently only 20% implemented, and is fulfilled with a half a year time lag. As a result, the gas production growth rate is only 3.6% – this trend should be changed".

In particular, Roman Opimakh has pointed out the key issues, which require immediate resolving. Such issues include improvement of the tax regime, deregulation of the permitting procedure, openning of the geological information, and organization of transparent auctions.

"There is a solid correlation between how much gas we are producing domestically and how much it costs. If the market does not have a deficit, and surplus is created instead, the price for such a good goes down. Thus, increasing domestic gas production and exports abroad will allow to make the end price for both the commercial and household consumers more attractive" – stated the executive director of the Association.

When giving a keynote speech, the CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andriy Kobolyev, has also spoken on the importance of increasing domestic gas production:

"Provided that the plan on increasing gas production, on one hand, and implementation of the energy efficiency measures, on the other, are both implemented, we are confident that by the end of 2020 Ukraine can stop being a net importer of natural gas".

During the opening of the conference, the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, has stated that not a single country shall use energy levers to influence Ukraine. She assured of full support from the EU and the USA in building a trasparent energy market in Ukraine.