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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Most oil and gas subsoil deposits are controlled by state companies: in the most important of them, the CPC noticed people close to the Office of the President
The State Service of Geology and Subsoil published a new list of companies that hold special permits to use Ukraine’s subsoil.
A special permit is a document that the state issues for a certain period to a person or a firm. The people are the owners of Ukraine’s subsoil, and the state either uses it itself or grants its use for a fee.
The CPC singled out hydrocarbon special permits from this list and, using registries and the YouControl system, identified the business owners.
Then, with our sources in the extraction industry and the Nadra.info website, we verified the accuracy and completeness of what we found and established possible links between the companies and certain hidden individuals.
We now tell you about our findings in three articles. This is the first of them.
👉 Note that there may be inaccuracies in the text, because special permits are alienated or lost through courts and expiration of their terms.
Some information from the state service is outdated or incorrect. However, we believe our material gives an approximate picture of the sector.
According to the State Geology and Subsoil Service, 595 permits were issued for hydrocarbon extraction and exploration. At least 82 of them (13,78%) are in occupied territories.
❗️One of the main conclusions — 66% of all oil and gas permits are controlled by state companies. More precisely, 395 out of 595.
▪️Almost all state special permits for oil and gas — 365 — are concentrated in the Naftogaz group. The group controls or partially owns them directly or through its structures.
From 2022 to 2024 the head of the board of JSC Naftogaz of Ukraine was the friend of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiy Chernyshov, who later received a suspicion from NABU and SAP.
Until December 2025, a member of Naftogaz’s supervisory board was Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Shurma, who also has a suspicion from NABU and SAP but is hiding abroad.
▪️211 permits out of 365 are held by JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannya (“UGV”) of the Naftogaz group. This company is fully owned by Naftogaz.
Last year, the High Anti-Corruption Court placed UGV’s commercial director Maksym Horbatiuk in detention with bail of 25 million UAH.
▪️91 permit out of 365 is held by JSC Ukrnafta of the Naftogaz group. Before the full-scale war, 42% belonged to companies related to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is now in pretrial detention.
In 2022, Ukrnafta fully became state-owned. Kolomoisky said that most of Ukrnafta’s supervisory board is “directly connected to the Office of the President.”
We won’t judge the majority, but there is indeed a former business partner of Andriy Yermak — Roza Tapanova.
▪️Since 2023, Ukrnafta has managed the corporate rights of PJSC Extraction Company Ukrnaftoburinnia (“UNB”), which YouControl attributes to Vitaliy Khomutynnik’s group.
Read more about this company, which involved several oligarchs, and other structures within Naftogaz’s orbit in Alina Stryzhak’s article:
https://antac.org.ua/news/bilshist-ukra%d1%97nskih-naftogazovih-nadr-kontrolyuyut-derzhkompani%d1%97-u-najvazhlivishih-iz-nih-zafiksuvali-blizkih-do-op-lyudej/
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