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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

STATE OILGAS DEPARTMENT IS LIQUIDATED

3 March, 1998 - 00:00

The President of Ukraine has signed a decree on the liquidation of the State Committee on the Oil, Gas, and the Refining Industry, and on the
creation of the national joint-stock oil and gas company.

Thus 120 people were thrown off the state payroll. And this is the only one obvious advantage to speak of because there are more questions than answers about the creation of this national company. The decree says that the list of enterprises to be involved in this company will be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers. However, the task will be difficult. For example, the joint-stock company, Ukrnaft (Ukrainian Oil) will decide whether take part in the company at its stockholders meeting. We also cannot predict the reaction of stockholders who possess a controlling interest. There is also a question: will it be possible for such state enterprises as the Druzhba (Friendship) and Prydniprovsky (Dnipro) main pipelines to be involved in the company? As Presidential aide Volodymyr Ryzhkov told us, in the course of time the national company will be a public one and its stock will be bought and sold at a very low price. Mr. Ryzhkov added that this company is being created to function like British Petroleum or British Gas. Let us hope!

However, we are worried about the time chosen for the changes, the time of the elections. Without extreme exertion someone could get himself quite a big piece of this oil-gas pie in this mess. Moreover, the chairman of the State Oil and Gas Department running on the People's Democratic Party ticket. His first deputy Ihor Bakai has already taken a pre-election vacation. Who will

create the a new company? Who will bring order to the gas market where total chaos now reigns?

There is a candidate. According to unconfirmed information the famous Shell Co. has paid $1.5 billion, half a billion to our government, to obtain a 49% interest in Ukrhazprom (Ukrainian gas industry) and skim the cream off the best Ukrainian gas thoroughfares.

 

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