REUTERS
It is very important to fix the problem in the near future, Groysman said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman says Ukraine's largest natural gas producer, Ukrgazvydobuvannya, has failed to fulfill the government's plan to boost annual gas production to 20 billion cubic meters (bcm) by 2020.
"I'm extremely disappointed with the fact that Ukrgazvydobuvannya, which is owned by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, has, in fact, failed to fulfill the plan we approved for gas output until 2020. We're very worried about this. It's very important to fix the problem in the near future," he said at a Cabinet meeting on February 13, presenting the government's 2018 report.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the government's 20/20 Program provides for Ukrgazvydobuvannya's annual output boost up to 20 bcm of gas by 2020. To this end, it is planned to increase drilling of new wells and intensify production at existing ones.
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However, the company has not received the relevant licenses for exploring new fields, which significantly affected the implementation of the plan.
According to Ukrgazvydobuvannya CEO Oleh Prokhorenko, the company applied for new licenses 170 times in 2016-2018, but received only 17.
At the same time, he noted that the 20/20 Program envisages obtaining 15-20 new licenses per year.
Ukrgazvydobuvannya in 2018 boosted natural gas production by 1.6% from 2017, to 15.496 bcm.
UNIAN memo. Ukrgazvydobuvannya is Ukraine's largest gas producer, holding a 70% share in the total volume of the country's hydrocarbon production. It is wholly owned by national oil and gas holding Naftogaz of Ukraine.