PrJSC MC Ukrnaftoburinnya is one of the TOP-3 private companies in Ukraine in terms of natural gas, oil and gas condensate production. The company has always fulfilled its obligations to the state, the public and partners in good faith and in full.

The Resolutions No. 1433 and No. 1435 adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on December 30, 2021, which oblige private gas producers of Ukraine to sell up to 20% of their gas production on a monthly basis on a commodity exchange at a regulated price with a significant underestimation of its market value from January 1 to April 30, 2022, inclusive, do not comply with the current legislation. Within the framework of UNB's membership in the Association of Gas Producers of Ukraine, we have repeatedly stated that we do not agree with this decision and believe that it directly contradicts the Law of Ukraine "On the Natural Gas Market", Ukraine's international obligations and will have irreversible negative consequences for the country's private gas production.

At the same time, as a socially responsible business, we fully understand our responsibility to the state, the public and the participants of the fuel and energy market. However, we emphasize that it is extremely important to ensure the transparency of applications from companies that receive "social" gas and control over the targeted use of this gas for the production of products of significant social importance to supply the domestic market. The current list, which was compiled by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy in a closed mode, includes almost 7,000 companies, but there are also those whose main activity is not the production of socially important goods, and those registered in the occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Donetsk and Luhansk regions. When selling gas, it is extremely important to understand that its final recipient does not carry out any activities and does not participate in financial and economic transactions with any entities in the territory of the Joint Forces Operation and/or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, is not subject to any restrictive sanctions or prohibitions, including international ones, and will use the gas received exclusively for the production of food products of significant social importance and consumed in Ukraine, which is impossible to ensure under the current sales mechanism."

In order to ensure that the gas sale process is open, transparent and impartial, we sent an official letter (No. 04-01-вих-260122.3 dated 26.01.22) to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine with a request to provide a list of enterprises whose main activity is the production of rye-wheat bread and/or pasteurized milk with a fat content of 2.5% (in film), indicating the volume and gas month of natural gas supply. In this letter, we stated that, based on the information received, in order to meet the needs of such enterprises as quickly and reliably as possible, PrJSC MC Ukrnaftoburinnya is ready to directly conclude agreements with them for the supply of natural gas of its own production.

It is worth noting that a number of constructive meetings were held earlier with the participation of private gas producers and government authorities. Understanding the current situation and taking into account the categorical refusal of the management of the state-owned enterprise NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine to support the baking industry, private gas producers expressed their readiness to provide support and sell produced gas to enterprises in this industry in the total amount of about 30 million cubic meters at a fixed price for February-March 2022, and proposed an effective mechanism for implementing assistance. This would help to keep prices for essential products for the population stable while maintaining the current dynamics of the private gas production industry. Following a meeting on December 26, 2021, at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, representatives of private gas producers confirmed their readiness to move towards the proposed mechanism. However, as a result, the Cabinet of Ministers did not take into account the initiatives of gas producers and issued resolutions that did not comply with previous agreements.

In our opinion, the state support should not be provided at the expense of private gas producers without any compensation for their significant losses and without taking into account their interests as producers of the key energy resource, but based on the experience of European countries. However, realizing its social responsibility, PrJSC MC Ukrnaftoburinnya is ready to join any effective and transparent measures to overcome the negative consequences of the global energy crisis. We are confident that the solution we have proposed will solve the ultimate task in an efficient and transparent way, which is to support the producers of products of significant social importance by selling them the required volume of gas at an affordable price. Therefore, while waiting for a response from the Ministry of Energy, we hope that the government will prioritize this task over technical and bureaucratic aspects of the mechanism of such sales and will allow us to fulfill this task.