The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

After the special permit for the Stynavske oil and gas field was annulled, the state-owned company Ukrnafta proposed putting the plot up for an open auction. However, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil (Derggeonadra) refused to do so, citing, among other reasons, an overlap with the neighboring Semyhynivske field, the special permit for which belongs to the company owned by the daughters of former minister Mykola Zlochevsky.

This is stated in materials from the StopCor investigation, whose authors analyzed documents from open sources.

Sanctions and annulment: how did the Stynavske field end up without a subsoil user?

2 July 2026 the National Security and Defense Council adopted a decision on sanctions against a number of entities, which President Volodymyr Zelensky put into effect by decree No. 704/2026 dated 3 August.

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The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

As reported by the media outlet LIGA.net, the list included LLC "SP "Boryslav Oil Company" (BOC), which developed the Stynavske oil and gas field in the Lviv region.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

At first, the validity of BOC’s special permits was limited to 10 years, and on 18 August Derggeonadra suspended the company’s single permit — No. 1211. However, on 20 August the National Security and Defense Council changed the decision, making the restriction indefinite (decree No. 747/2026).

As NADRA.info reported, on 18 September by order No. 449, signed by acting Head of Derggeonadra Serhiy Vlasenko, special permit No. 1211 was finally annulled (see also the annex to the order).

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

The permit in question authorized the extraction of oil and gas at depths of 2800–3600 m.

Why does this matter?

Stynavske is one of the country’s key oil fields: in the report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for 2020 it is named among Ukraine’s largest oil fields.

According to BOC, in the first half of 2026 the company produced on average about 43 tons of oil and 68 thousand cubic meters of gas per day and paid more than 1,5 million UAH to budgets daily. Converted to a year, that’s about 15,7 thousand tons of oil and 25 million cubic meters of gas.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

After the sanctions, LIGA.net reports, production stopped.

"Ukrnafta" asks for an auction — GeoInform recommends refusal

A logical step after the annulment would have been to put the plot up for open electronic bidding and attract a new investor. According to documents available to the editorial office, on 21 September PJSC Ukrnafta applied to Derggeonadra with exactly that proposal (application No. 336-PR/1-26). On 25 September Derggeonadra assigned the State Scientific and Production Enterprise "GeoInform of Ukraine" to work on it.

On 28 September GeoInform replied with letter No. 06/306-3463 signed by the head of the enterprise’s transformation commission, Pavlo Bovsunivskyi.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

The letter listed two grounds for returning the application:

The approved contour of the Stynavske field (protocol of the State Commission on Mineral Reserves (DKZ) dated 23.04.2015 No. 3354) partially extends beyond the plot proposed by Ukrnafta;

The initiated object spatially overlaps with the boundaries of the current special permit dated 25.10.2011 No. 5398 (Semyhynivske field), which belongs to LLC "PARI NAFTOGAZ" (EDRPOU code 44486791) and, as the letter states, "has no limitation regarding depth of use."

The first ground concerns the boundaries of the application itself and could theoretically be rectified technically. The second is fundamental: as long as PARI NAFTOGAZ’s permit is formally not limited by depth, any application for Stynavske can be rejected due to the “overlap.”

Who stands behind PARI NAFTOGAZ?

The owners of LLC "PARI NAFTOGAZ", according to YouControl, are Anna and Karina Zlochevskyi — daughters of former Environment Minister Mykola Zlochevsky.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

Earlier, the company "PARI" also appeared on the list of extraction companies owned by Mykola Zlochevsky’s Burisma Holdings.

Mykola Zlochevsky himself served as Minister of Ecology in Mykola Azarov’s government in the years 2010–2012 (during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency).

On 1 August 2023 the High Anti-Corruption Court approved a plea agreement in the case of an attempted bribe of the leadership of NABU and SAP: the court found him guilty under part 3 of article 27, part 1 of article 369-2 of the Criminal Code (organizing abuse of influence) and imposed a fine of 68 thousand UAH.

Is there any basis for the assumption that Mykola Zlochevsky can influence the decisions of PARI NAFTOGAZ while not formally being its owner? The question remains open.

Interestingly, PARI NAFTOGAZ’s rights to the Semyhynivske field have already been contested. As NADRA.info wrote, the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the court to declare special permit No. 5398 invalid, but the Supreme Court in May 2025 left the permit in force: prosecutors failed to justify the validity of the delay in applying, since the permit had been issued back in 2011.

One area, different depths

On the surface, the contours of the two fields do indeed partially coincide.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

But underground they are different objects. The Stynavske field, under the annulled permit No. 1211, was developed at depths of 2800–3600 m. According to the protocol of the State Commission on Mineral Reserves (DKZ) No. 4167 dated 23 November 2017, the deposits of the Semyhynivske field lie at depths of 3605–4540 m. In other words, the reserves to which the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters has rights are deeper than Stynavske’s.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

The difference lies in the permit forms. In BOC’s permit for Stynavske, the plot’s boundaries were specified both by area and by depth. In contrast, in permit form No. 5398 for PARI NAFTOGAZ, the current version of which, judging by the document, was issued on 21 July 2022 and signed by then-Head of Derggeonadra R. S. Opimakh, only geographic coordinates and area — 16,6 sq. km — are indicated. Depth boundaries, as GeoInform itself notes, are absent.

The state field may be handed without an auction to the company of Zlochevsky’s daughters: "Ukrnafta" had its auction blocked

At the same time, the permit form No. 5398 refers to DKZ protocol No. 4167 as its basis — i.e., to the document where the depth interval of the deposits is defined precisely. Hence the key question: can the absence of a recorded depth in the permit form expand the subsoil user’s rights beyond the reserves on which the permit is based? And why did Derggeonadra and GeoInform, in refusing Ukrnafta, not take this protocol into account?

Whether this was done intentionally or was simple negligence is unknown. But after the annulment of the special permit for the Stynavske plot, a company from Zlochevsky’s orbit apparently could take advantage of the “mistake.” The very fact that the permit form of LLC "PARI NAFTOGAZ" lacks clear parameters of the Semyhynivske subsoil plot by depth becomes the reason for denying the state company Ukrnafta the opportunity to put the Stynavske subsoil plot up for auction.

How did the depth “disappear” from the form and what does Opimakh have to do with it?

Is it a coincidence that the last reissuance of PARI NAFTOGAZ’s permit form occurred when Derggeonadra was headed by Roman Opimakh — he led the service from November 2019 to November 2024?

StopCor previously investigated his activity in office and wrote that from the beginning of November 2019, when Roman Opimakh came to Derggeonadra, a large number of scandals arose around non-transparent allocation of extraction licenses.

Were depth parameters present in previous versions of form No. 5398 (2011 and 2021 years)? Who initiated the reissuance in 2022 and who prepared the draft form? Was it a technical error or a deliberate decision? There are no answers to these questions in open sources.