Gas business of Odesa "supervisor" Ihor Uchytel is under threat of complete bankruptcy

Gas business of Odesa "supervisor" Ihor Uchytel is under threat of complete bankruptcy

Naftogaz of Ukraine puts the business of the owner of Odesagaz at risk of being closed down

This year, the process of "bridling" city and regional gas companies began at the instigation of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The first attempt was the filing of a lawsuit against Poltavagaz by former "regional" Oleksiy Lelyuk. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine in the Kyiv Commercial Court demanded that this enterprise pay 132 million UAH. This was the amount estimated for the losses incurred by the state due to the free operation of state gas distribution pipelines. At the same time, the Prosecutor General’s Office raised the issue of invalidating contract No. 31/31 of March 15, 2013, on the basis of which Lelyuk’s company operates the gas infrastructure in the region.

In the photo – Oleksiy Lelyuk

According to journalists, this process is still at the starting stage: it is expected that only a preparatory meeting will be held this month. Yuriy Lutsenko’s protégés have already prepared for it: in their claim, they rely on the Law "On the Lease of State and Municipal Property", which provides for the right to demand termination of the lease agreement in the event of failure of the parties to fulfill their obligations. Violations on the part of Poltavagaz seem obvious: the company does not pay a penny for the operation of gas pipelines, while the terms of the agreement stipulate an obligation to transfer "10% of the residual book value" of the property used.

In short, Oleksiy Lelyuk’s "blue chip" may turn into a "dummy" in the tangible future. But this will clearly not be an isolated case among regional gas supply companies. Following Poltavagaz, Odesagaz, controlled by Odesa Regional Council deputy Ihor Uchytel, came under attack. The formal organizer of the attack on his business is the state-owned Ukrtransgaz, whose lawyers filed a lawsuit against Odesagaz in the Commercial Court of Odesa Region, demanding that it recover UAH 380 million.

At the same time, the ideologist of this initiative is the manager of Ukrtransgaz, NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine. The reason for this is the fact that the main part of the mentioned amount (300 million UAH) was presented to Odesagaz under the pretext of the latter’s non-payment for "natural gas balancing services" - that is, the comparison of the volumes of gas taken from pipelines (consumption) with the volumes of its injection into the main line. But the reality is that Naftogaz charges city and regional gas companies, under the guise of balancing services rendered to them, the volume of gas that was consumed and not paid for by local consumers.

In the photo – Ihor Uchytel

It is well known that the most problematic category of consumers in the regions are enterprises of thermal municipal energy, for many of which understated tariffs (not covering the costs of heat energy production) are set. Andriy Kobolev is well aware of this problem, but in his position they proceed from the opposite: before reaching the end consumer, gas is transferred by Ukrtransgaz to regional gas companies. This means that it is they who are obliged to pay for this resource. According to Kobolev’s team, in general, regional gas companies have debts of more than UAH 25.5 billion, of which the lion’s share falls on two dozen enterprises from the orbit of Dmytro Firtash.

Naturally, local gas workers do not recognize this amount, blaming the fact that consumers owe them comparable amounts. But this is not an argument for Naftogaz: they aim to use the debts of regional gas companies to Ukrtransgaz as a lever with which to squeeze these companies out of the market. In this context, Odesagaz has a good chance of becoming a successful pilot project. It is obvious that a company with a turnover of half a billion hryvnia per year will not be able to repay the amount claimed by the plaintiff, and satisfying Ukrtransgaz’s demands could put Odesagaz in an extremely difficult situation. Which Uchytel’s company, given his not very large "lobbyist weight", may not be able to resolve.