Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman is moving a little closer to taking full control of Ukrainian gas monopoly Naftogaz – or at least render its current leadership obsolete.
According to a decision from March 27, the Cabinet of Ministers is forcing the oil and gas company to clear any major financial decisions with the government first.
As the sole shareholder, the government declared that “prior to any financial plan, Naftogaz must coordinate all of its intentions with the shareholders’ board before making any decision” – all in accordance with articles 33 and 58 of the law On Joint Stock Companies.
This comes only a week after that the government decided on March 21 to change Naftogaz’s status in order to strip the state company’s supervisory board of its powers to elect company officials.
Instead, the company’s shareholders – the government holds the majority stake – have from now on the power to elect or dismiss members of the supervisory board as well as its chairman during general meetings, without even consulting the supervisory board beforehand.
Groysman has also officially renewed Naftogaz head Andriy Kobolyev’s contract for a year, to the conditions that were made public on March 20 – namely a cut by half of his salary and the cancelation of all bonuses.
The Ukrainian prime minister has repeatedly criticized Kobolyev and Naftogaz’s supervisory board for their massive salaries and their inability to increase Ukraine’s natural gas production. In response, Kobolyev said that the government should give out more exploration licenses in order to increase production.
Kobolyev alleged that his salary was not the actual issue and claimed earlier on that the prime minister aimed at undermining the supervisory board and transferring more authority to the government.
Naftogaz’s chairman will also no longer chair the supervisory board of Ukrnafta, according to a posting on the state oil and gas production company’s website on March 27, even though he has been a member of Ukrnafta’s supervisory board since 2014.
Groysman is also considering in eventually privatizing Naftogaz by making the company a private joint stock company, rather than a public one as it is now.
