The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Roadmap aimed to ensure a transparent competition among oil and gas producers, which shall accelerate the holding of auctions and tenders for the sale of special auctions. A corresponding decision was taken on October 31, 2018.

The complex of measures contained in the approved document was developed to ensure transparency and fairness of the process of obtaining access to mineral resources in Ukraine.

The Government expects that it will encourage the experienced subsoil users, those possessing high-tech investments in gas production, to participate in the auctions.

According to Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion, the Government has set a rather ambitious goal: to deprive Ukraine of energy dependence. One of the components of energy independence is a sufficient amount of carbohydrates production, thereby making it possible to abandon dependence on the external market conditions, to fix the prices on natural gas for consumers of Ukraine not according to import parity, but to the volume of demand and supply on the domestic gas market, and to turn from gas importer to its exporter.

"To this end, in December 2016, the Government approved the Concept for the development of the Ukrainian gas exploration industry by 2020 and the Plan for its implementation. In October 2018, according to the results of the analysis and dynamics of the implementation of the Concept 2020, the Implementation Plan was updated. There have been introduced exclusively electronic auctions for the sale of special permits for the subsoil use. A Roadmap for accelerating oil and gas auctions is the next step to achieve the goal", said Volodymyr Kistion.

The Roadmap has been drafted with the participation of public organizations, in particular the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine. The first international auction should be organized and announced no later than January 2019, and the winners determined no later than March 2019.