On December 19, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada has made another step towards increasing domestic gas production and achieving the energy independence of Ukraine. 231 MP voted for the bill 3096-d, which should deregulate the gas production industry.

Roman Opimakh, the executive director of the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine:

"An important for the industry bill 3096-d cancels a list of outdated and duplicating requirements. The document includes reducing the timeline of the permitting procedure by 18 months, and shoudl significantly speed up the entering of the field into commercial development, as well as simplify the land allocation for drilling new wells".
Olga Bielkova, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Energy, Nuclear Policy and Safety:

"The draft law is aimed at deregulation and improvement of the procedure of allocation of land for exploration and production activities, as wel las simplify other permits of the petroleum industry, and will allow to attract significant investments in the industry and increase domestic gas production. Although the document currently does not remove all the barriers for gas production in Ukraine, it is a balanced compromise solution. Short time ago, in this very same hall, very many MPs have supported the amendments to the fiscal regime, but it is meaningless without the companies being able to make easement contracts and lease the land plots in the early stages of production".
Oleksand Dombrovskyy, acting Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Energy, Nuclear Policy and Safety:

"Only 40 years ago, Ukraine was producing twice as much gas, as it is consuming today. A record annual production level is 68.7 bcm. However, Ukraine still has a huge potential for increasing domestic production. To increase the gas production to 27 bcm (by 35%) by 2020, around $1.7 billion of investments should be attracted. Moreover, by replacing the imports by the domestically produced gas, we have the opportunity to keep around $3 billion annually in the budget, which is a lot more than what we are receiving from the IMF in loans".