Olena Pavlenko: The New Gas Market Needs More Reforms

Dixi Group President Olena Pavlenko took part in the Gas Forum held on October 13 in Kyiv. The event was devoted to discussing the opportunities and challenges facing gas market participants since October 1 when a new gas market law came into effect.

The Forum participants were generally positive about the new legislation on the gas market, but pointed out that its complete implementation required a great number of preparatory steps to be made, including harmonization of the primary legislation, elimination of existing regulatory barriers, and an effective reform of  Naftogaz NJSC, with an independent energy transport system operator selected.

Another important element of the gas market reform should be an independent regulator. “We hope very much that by December, Ukraine’s parliament will have passed a law making the regulator in the energy sector indeed strong, independent, and able to respond to violations on the gas market. On our part, we are doing everything to ensure that the final version of the bill takes into account all the comments and meets all the requirements of the European legislation,” Olena Pavlenko said.