Will Gas Pass Under Valery Pustovoitenko?
Naftohaz Ukrayiny’s supervisory board held its April 4 meeting in an atmosphere of disguised yet tangible confrontation. Chairman of the Board and Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko assumed the victor’s posture after Naftohaz Ukrayiny President Ihor Bakai stepped down. But looking and acting the victor are different stories.
These days the Cabinet is considering the possibility of transferring the Kyivenerho Public Joint Stock Company’s controlling interest (50%+1 shares) to the statutory fund of the Energy and Fuels of Ukraine National Energy Company, along with the property of a number of the capital’s combined heat-and-power units (Ukr. abbr. TEC), specifically, TEC-5 and TEC-6 in Kyiv, TEC-5 in Kharkiv, Cherkasy TEC, and the thermal networks under the Kyivenerho auspices. Interfax Ukraine (citing informed sources) maintains that the transfer idea was seconded by President Kuchma who gave appropriate instructions to First Vice Premier Yuri Yekhanurov, and through him, to Energy and Fuel Minister Serhiy Tulub, and to State Property Fund Chairman Oleksandr Bondar.
One People’s Deputy told The Day on condition of anonymity that this partial redistribution of generating-and-distribution capacities shows that the former NU leadership is trying to get the best pieces of the pie. Another Ukrainian lawmaker (with an interest in the energy market) claims Ms. Tymoshenko opposes this redistribution, claiming it to be illegal. But she is being put in her place, as decisions are apparently being made bypassing the Vice Premier responsible for the fuel and energy sector. A source from Ms. Tymoshenko’s apparatus told The Day he had no information corroborating the above developments.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Riabchenko, chairman of the parliamentary privatization oversight committee, informed The Day that Ihor Bakai, after resigning as head of Naftohaz Ukrayiny, remains an impressive figure; he is bound to surface somewhere at the upper echelons and get an important post. Mr. Riabchenko believes Ihor Bakai would like NU to retain certain district energy companies, in which case “certain transactions would be possible.” Otherwise the scope is apparently not what Mr. Bakai would like, Mr. Riabchenko added.
Meanwhile, cloakroom gossip reports a presidential decree signed, appointing Valery Pustovoitenko head of Naftohaz Ukrayiny. The anonymous Parliament source informed The Day, “The transfer of the government interest in Kyivenerho can be evidence that Yuliya Tymoshenko is being gently crowded out of control over the sector. From now on NU will coordinate its efforts directly with the President and most likely bypass even the Premier.” The said source also believes that if what he says is true, relationships with Russia will improve.
Prior to the NU supervisory board meeting, The Day got in touch with Volodymyr Kuratchenko, SB member and head of Zaporizhzhia’s regional state administration.
The Day: Who are you going to vote for?
Kuratchenko: I’m not sure.
The Day: Do you know the candidacies?
Kuratchenko: From what I know, Valery Pustovoitenko will be on the list, and all the others are highly questionable...
When asked about Energy and Fuels of Ukraine, Mr. Kuratchenko said such companies should operate at the regional level, in coordination with the generating companies. If they are to operate separately, this will mean another “sifting” of resources and funds through several systems, which is “invariably costly,” he added.
President Kuchma, speaking in Donetsk on April 3, did not approve of the Cabinet’s performance: “The more Cabinet meetings they hold and the longer such meetings last, the worse the daily situation in the energy sector. We have learned to draw up patterns. Often, it is clear to the naked eye that such patterns are aimed at fooling the state again.”
