The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine is concerned about the introduction of the PSA (product sharing agreements) mechanism in addition to the license/royalty regime which continues to run in parallel.
The Chamber said that the criteria discriminating PSA and other blocks are unclear. The current PSA process is seriously flawed.
“PSAs are not used in any EU country, and their use in Ukraine only underlines the urgent need for reforms in the existing oil and gas fiscal and regulatory regime,” the Chamber said, adding that a single, fair, stable and non-discriminatory environment for oil and gas is one of the key factors in attracting major international investment.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine looks forward to working with the government and members of the international community to offer ways to address shortcomings in the current PSA process and to create an environment that sparks a resurgence of interest in the sector and allows Ukraine to achieve its objectives including self-sufficiency in gas.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine in January-February 2019 acquired nuclear fuel for a total of $45.155 million.
According to the State Statistics Service, in the two months of the current year, Russian-made fuel was purchased for Ukrainian nuclear power plants for $17.437 million, fuel from Sweden for $27.719 million.
Thus, the share of purchases of nuclear fuel by Ukraine for the reporting period from TVEL (Russia) in monetary terms was 38.6%, from Westinghouse (Sweden) some 61.4%.
The operator of all four NPPs in Ukraine is state-owned enterprise Energoatom, which purchases nuclear fuel under the contracts with TVEL and Westinghouse Electric Sweden.
The French group AgroGeneration with assets in Ukraine in 2018 received EUR8.52 million of net loss, which is 35.3% less than in 2017.
According to the report on the company’s website, its revenue decreased by 24.3%, to EUR41 million, gross profit by 29.7%, to EUR11.27 million. Operating profit for the year increased by 1.8 times, to EUR1.48 million.
EBITDA in 2018 rose by 11.8%, to EUR10.17 million. Net debt rose by 36.8% by the end of the year, to EUR62.16 million.
The share of export sales last year fell to 52% from 57% in 2017.
In 2018, AgroGeneration produced about 328,100 tonnes of grains and oilseeds from 105,200 hectares, which is 8.7% less than in 2017.
“The decline is due to the difficult weather conditions that affected early crops (especially wheat and barley). Despite this, the yield of AgroGeneration remains higher than the average figure in the Ukrainian agricultural sector,” the report says.
The Confederation of Constructors of Ukraine has named the key issues in the construction sphere, the settling of which is expected from president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky, in particular, reform of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate and the introduction of BIM technologies.
“Radical reforming of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate of Ukraine, separation of administrative services and supervisory functions in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine. The functions of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate should be digitalized and transparent. Obtaining permits for construction should take place in line with detailed technological maps in the period specified by the legislation”, the confederation said in a statement.
In addition, the confederation expects increased control over the quality of projects and construction works, as well as the introduction of professional responsibility of experts evaluating projects and the personal responsibility of Construction Inspectorate inspectors. Enhancing the role of self-governing organizations in licensing, market supervision, and certification of qualified specialists at all stages of construction projects also belongs to the fundamental issues of reforming the sphere.
The confederation also emphasizes the seriousness of the issue of maintaining a balanced export-import policy in relation to building materials and technologies.
At the same time, the confederation noted the need to reanimate the government mortgage and support programs for the purchase of housing. In addition, it is important to stimulate the implementation of large construction projects, as well as the creation of industrial enterprises as part of industrial parks or individual industries.
