The court arrested three private gas companies that illegally took possession of the subsoil of the Sakhalin field

Author:
Sofiia Telishevska
Date:

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported the seizure of the corporate rights of three companies in the case of illegal possession of subsoil of the Sakhalin oil and gas condensate field in Kharkiv region.

It is talking about: Sakhalin LLC, whose beneficiaries are former MPs Ihor Kotvitskyi and Vitalii Danilov; Sirius-1 LLC, whose beneficiary is the former top manager of Ukrtatnafta Pavlo Ovcharenko; East Europe Petroleum LLC, whose probable beneficiary is Pavlo Fuks.

The most famous of these companies is East Europe Petroleum, which was founded in 2007 under the name Golden Derrick. At that time, it belonged to NJSC "Nadra of Ukraine" and the Cypriot Hartlog Limited.

Previously, the company was controlled by the former Minister of Energy Eduard Stavytskyi, but in early 2017 it changed its owner and name, and a year later the state gave up its stake in it.

In February 2023, the SBI together with the SBU exposed a scheme of high-ranking officials who received illegal excess profits from gas extraction from state subsoil.

Law enforcement officers searched Ihor Kotvitskyi, who in the period 2003-2022 actually appropriated state-owned minerals based on a preliminary conspiracy with officials of PJSC "NAC Nadra of Ukraine", Derzhgeonadra, LLC "Sakhalinske" and commercial structures.

Under the "patronage" of the former MP, state bodies issued licenses for gas production in violation of procedures, which allowed the participants of the scheme to understate the cost and real volumes of production, earning on the difference.

Because of these machinations, Ukraine de facto lost the right to the Sakhalin oil and gas field in Kharkiv region.

Despite the fact that more than a billion hryvnias were spent from the state budget on the development of the deposit. According to geological survey data, gas deposits at this facility amount to at least 15 billion cubic meters.

The investigation continues on the fact of abuse of official position (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).