Oil and Gas
Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov told local journalists on Friday (Sept 2) that the Ukrainian government is planning to restructure state energy company Naftogaz into several different entities. “Naftogaz will cease to exist as a business entity, there will be a liquidation period, and… after all the necessary formalities are observed, completely different, new companies will start operating on the market,” Interfax quoted Azarov as saying. The PM also said Ukraine hopes to reap between USD 5-10bn from an initial public offering of a minority stake in UkrGazVydobuvannya, the main extraction subsidiary of Naftogaz, which has access to a large portion of Ukraine’s natural gas reserves. Separately on Friday, a spokesman for Azarov explicitly denied that the restructuring of Naftogaz would take the form of a merger between Naftogaz and Russia’s state behemoth Gazprom.
