The Government approved a package of bills designed to support and effectively develop the oil and gas industry in Ukraine.

The regulatory reform package for the industry encapsulates two balanced steps.

The first step is to eradicate inactive licenses for oil and gas production.

If gas extraction has not been carried out for more than three years, then the monthly fee for the use of the land permit begins, depending on the size of the area and the date of issue of the permit. Thus, you either extract the resource or you pay taxes without profit.

If you are unable to pay, you return the land to the state. The license is terminated and revoked through court. The site will be placed on auction  to attract new, efficient investors.

This practice is in line with the world experience and is applied in a number of countries, such as Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Norway, USA, Croatia.

The second step is a comprehensive improvement of the legal regulation of key issues in the domestic oil and gas industry.

The issue at stake is a complete modernization of the line regulatory field. These are amendments to the Subsoil Code of Ukraine, to the Law of Ukraine “On Oil and Gas” and to the Law of Ukraine “On Production Sharing Agreements

These steps will provide transparent conditions for foreign investors, the oil and gas fields will be used more efficiently, corruption factors in obtaining special permits will be eradicated, the environmental impact will be assessed by international standards, and the volumes of oil and gas production in Ukraine will increase significantly.