«Gas production industry is aiming to repeat the positive tendencies in the gas trading market through systematic reforms. In the past 3 years, over 300 licenses were registered for renowned European traders in Ukraine. We would like to observe the same tendency in the gas production sector», – Roman Opimakh, the executive director of the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine, has stressed out during his speech at the II Legal Energy Forum hosted by the Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing. During the forum, the experts, the representatives of the law firms, judges, and the business community have discussed the important legislative initiatives, analyzed the Energy Strategy of Ukraine by 2035 from the legal stance, discussed the current issues on the Ukrainian market and steps towards energy independence of Ukraine.

According to Roman Opimakh, all the expectations of the gas production industry are included in the Concept for Development of Gas Production Industry, which has been approved by the Government almost a year ago, and contains a specific action plan:

«The dynamics of the Concept implementation are very low. Currently, we see that only 20% of the plan has been implemented, moreover, with a 6 month lag. As a result, the production growth rate is only 3.5%, while the Concept was using the rate of +18%."

To develop the industry and increase gas production, the three important issues should be resolved. We are talking about implementing stimulating taxation for gas producers, improvement of the tax policy, and access to geological information to hold auctions.