Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
👉🏻Zlochevskyi, Kozytskyi, Akhmetov, Pinchuk: who controls Ukraine’s private oil and gas subsoil - CEC
Private companies hold 200 hydrocarbon special permits, i.e., 33,61% of the total number. About two dozen of them foresee operations in occupied territories. The CEC analyzed the owners of 117 permits, mostly connected to businessmen from Forbes lists and figures known from the media.
🛢️ Zlochevskyi: 37 special permits. Mykola Zlochevskyi formerly worked in state bodies that issue licenses for subsoil development, and under Yanukovych he was minister of ecology. After that his family acquired gas assets. In 2023 the High Anti-Corruption Court found him guilty in a bribery case; he struck a deal with investigators and donated 500 million UAH to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The family’s companies are controlled through a number of structures by his daughters Anna and Karina, who hold Cypriot citizenship. In 2025 the head of the finance committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, spoke about preparing an appeal to the NSDC regarding a “revision and audit” of the subsoil leases granted.
🛢️ Kozytskyi family: 21 special permit. Zinoviy Kozytskyi, the father of Lviv Regional Military Administration head Maksym Kozytskyi, owns the group “Zakhidnadrservice.” He controls eight permits personally, and 11 more he holds jointly with Czech billionaire Karel Komárek. Two permits he holds with co-owners, among them Vitalii Antonov, owner of the OKKO gas station network.
🛢️ Pinchuk: 14 special permits. Viktor Pinchuk, the country’s second-richest person after Rinat Akhmetov, controls permits for gas-bearing subsoil in five regions: Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv. Two of them, for the Vysochanske and Zaitsiivske fields, are located in occupied Luhansk region.
🛢️ Akhmetov: 10 special permits. The country’s richest person, through his companies, holds seven exploration permits for hydrocarbons in Poltava and Kharkiv regions. He bought three of them during the full-scale invasion. Three additional extraction permits belong to PrJSC Naftogazvydobuvannia, which he controls.
🛢️ Katsuba: 9. Oleksandr Katsuba in 2012–2014 served as deputy head of Naftogaz. He is one of the participants in the “Boyko towers” scheme, i.e., drilling rigs purchased at inflated prices. Katsuba struck a deal with investigators and was released after paying a fine of $3,5 million. At the beginning of 2026 he registered the business of his former wife and father-in-law under his name, including Nadra-GeoInvest. According to media reports, in 2023 this group entered the top three largest private gas producers.
🛢️ Butkevych: 6 special permits. Hennadii Butkevych, owner of the ATB network, has five permits held by his companies located in Kharkiv and Odesa regions. The sixth, for the Siverskodonetska block in occupied Luhansk, is indirectly linked to him: the beneficiary of the owning company is listed as the chair of the board of directors of BGV Group Management, founded by Butkevych.
🛢️ Novynskyi: 6 special permits. Vadym Novynskyi, founder of Smart Holding, who is under sanctions for aiding the Russian Federation. In August 2025 he announced the cessation of investments in Ukrainian gas subsoil. However, before the sanctions he transferred the business to persons whom the Ministry of Justice considered to resemble nominees, so he was forcibly reinstated in registers as a beneficiary. He is now listed as beneficiary of companies that own three extraction permits in Kharkiv and Poltava regions, another permit on the Azov shelf (together with Ruben Zakharyan), and two permits of Regal Petroleum Corporation, a structure of UK-based Enwell Energy. Novynskyi was beneficiary of the latter until December 2022.
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