Publication

This paper discusses the gas sector in Ukraine and efforts to reform it, including the reasons the Ukrainian parliament passed a law in April 2015 to break up the state-owned company Naftogaz and create a competitive gas market in the country. More specifically, the author examines 1) Ukraine’s high levels of gas imports and how this results from energy inefficiency; 2) the extent of corruption in the Ukrainian gas sector and the role it has played in politics and Ukraine-Russia relations; 3) the economic problems of Naftogaz, created by the company’s high levels of debt; 4) government efforts to reform Naftogaz, government subsidies of gas prices and other areas of the country’s gas industry; 5) the significance of the gas reforms for the country and its future; and 6) the prospects for the implementation of the gas sector reforms.