Ukraine currently has 200 to 300 so-called “dormant” production licenses, mostly in the oil and gas sector. About this reported executive director of the National Association of Extractive Industry of Ukraine (NADPU) Ksenia Orynchak.
“If we talk about all the special permits, 11,000 have been issued since 1991, somewhere around 300-200 can definitely be considered “dormant”, and this mainly concerns oil and gas.”– Orinchak explained.
According to her, back in 2018-2019, the State Geology and Subsoil Service of Ukraine published public information about 70 “dormant” permits in the field of oil and gas production. Most of them belong to the company “Ukrgazvydobuvannya”, and the situation with these permits has not changed since then.
Orinchak explained that the term “dormant” special permit does not exist in the current legislation. However, in 2022, with the participation of the association, Law No. 2805 “On Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Improvement of Legislation in the Field of Subsoil Use” was adopted, which contains a rule on canceling the permit and placing it on an electronic auction if the production level does not exceed 1%.
“Derzhgeonadra, namely the state geological control department under the leadership of Vadym Honcharenko, knows exactly who is mining and who is not. And what’s more, the State Tax Service of Ukraine also knows exactly who is mining and who is not, because until 2023 there was a rule: if you do not register with the tax office within 180 days, and you have already received a special permit for mining, this means that you become “dormant”Orynchak said.
Currently, the State Geological Survey has launched a review of 314 special permits. At the same time, NADPU and other specialized associations emphasize the need to check only those who are not actually engaged in mining, given the challenges faced by business during the war.
“In other words, 29 special permits out of 314 geocontrols of the State Geological Survey will be 100% checked, because they know that these are definitely “sleepers”, – Orinchak added.
