Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill deregulating the license issue in the oil and gas production sphere.
According to a posting on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the signed document was returned to the parliament on March 29.
The law permits the use of the servitude tool for the construction of oil and gas production facilities and pipelines (without changing the purpose of land use).
In addition, the need to obtain a patented mining claim is eliminated. Oil and gas production facilities are removed from the list of facilities of town-planning activity. The obligatory introduction of deposits to research, industrial and commercial development is canceled by the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.
The document gives the right to oil and gas producers after the completion of the period of research and industrial development of deposits to use land parcels on the basis of an agreement with the owner of the land parcels until the purpose of land use is changed and documents for the right to use land are registered (now companies are obliged to stop production for the period of processing documents).
The removal and transfer of soil for further drilling can be carried out without special permission on the basis of a detailed land management project.
The law grants deposit users the right to use their geological information without agreeing them with authorities. In addition, it is proposed to expand the range of entities that can conduct a geological and economic assessment of oil and gas reserves (now this right is owned exclusively by the State Commission of Ukraine for Mineral Reserves).
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted on March 1 at the second reading and in general bill No. 3096-d, which deregulates the license issue in the oil and gas production sphere.
JKX Oil&Gas Plc with assets in Ukraine saw a 52.3% fall in net loss in 2017, to $17.7 million. According to an annual report of the company posted on the website of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), revenue last year grew by 3.5%, to $76.4 million, and operating profit stood at $7.8 million compared with $3.9 million of loss a year ago.
In 2017 group average production was 8,658 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd, 14.1% down year-over-year).
Production in Ukraine fell by 12%. Gas production fell by 10%, to 16.7 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd). Oil and gas condensate output decreased 20%, to 719 boepd.
As reported, in Ukraine JKX owns Poltava Petroleum Company.
The largest shareholders of JKX are Eclairs Group of Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov with 27.47% of the shares, Keyhall Holding with 11.42% of the shares, Neptune Invest & Finance Corp with 12.95%, and Russia’s Proxima Capital Group with 19.92% and Interneft Ltd. with 6.6%.
