REUTERS
Ukraine consumes about 32 billion cubic meters of gas annually; of this amount, 16 billion is produced locally.
Chairman of the Exchange Committee of the Ukrainian Energy Exchange Oleksiy Dubovskyi says Ukraine today is able to stop gas imports and switch to gas of its own production; however, it's unlikely to happen by 2020, as was announced earlier.
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"Ukraine was expected to become energy independent in 2020. NJSC Naftogaz [of Ukraine] presented a program, according to which [gas] output will increase by 2020, and [the country] will supply enough gas of own production," the expert said, as reported by the Ukrainian online news outlet Obozrevatel.
Today, Ukraine consumes about 32 billion cubic meters of gas annually; of this amount, 16 billion is produced locally.
"The 2020 program foresaw growth of production. Yet, in 2017-2018, the plans remained just only plans. There is a certain increase, but the production itself is a rather long process. When a drilling company bores a well, there is no guarantee that there will be gas. It may turn out to be empty. There are certain risks," he added.
According to Dubovskyi, the risks are also associated with the withdrawal of licenses for the development of subsoil.
"Today, the government has decided that such special licenses will be sold via the ProZorro [public e-procurement system]. We hope that the licenses will be available to more producers. And not only Naftogaz, represented by its subsidiary [Ukraine's largest gas producing state holding] PJSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya, but also private companies will be involved in drilling [wells]," he said.
"We hope that Ukraine will become energy independent, although with a delay," the expert added.