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leading privately owned oil and gas company JKX Oil & Gas LTD.
JKX Oil & Gas’ subsidiary, Poltava Petroleum Company, is a leading non-state oil and gas producer in Ukraine, holding five production licenses and one for geological study, including pilot production. It previously only admitted that Kolomoisky was a major stake holder in December last year, just as Kolomoisky was coming under increasing pressure from the authorities.
Kolomoisky was arrested on September 2 by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and charged with money laundering and fraud.
He had already lost control of his shares in Ukraine’s major oil and gas companies Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta which were placed under the control of the Ministry of Defence. Kolomoisky attempts to challenge this temporary nationalisation were thwarted.
Previously a business partner of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who sold his comedy shows to Kolomoisky-owned TV stations, Kolomoisky is widely credited with putting Zelenskiy into office after throwing the weight of his TV empire behind the former comedian’s presidential bid.
After the nationalisation of his oil assets, Kolomoisky received a warning from the Office of the President, stating that he should remain silent or he would be deported to the United States to face justice there, where he is under sanctions and suspected of being involved “in large-scale corruption” in Cleveland. Kolomoisky backed off.
Now Kolomoisky has lost control of yet another major oil asset, after the British Virgin Islands (BVI) Registrar of Corporate Affairs confirmed that Eclairs Group Limited (EGL), previously the major shareholder of JKX with a 32.66% stake, was struck off the register in 2022 and dissolved in July 2023. Kolomoisky is reportedly in control of EGL.
"JKX has received confirmation... that EGL... was struck off the register on November 1, 2022, and dissolved by operation of BVI Law on July 4, 2023. Prior to dissolution, EGL was the company’s major shareholder," the company stated, as cited by Interfax Ukraine.
The shares previously held by EGL in JKX have now vested in the Crown and EGL will be removed from JKX's share register and Kolomoisky will be removed from the company’s register as the ultimate beneficial owner, since he no longer holds any direct or indirect interest in JKX, the BVI authorities said.
State extracting company Ukrgazvydobuvannya has drilled two wells with high production rates. Together, they increased the company's daily output by 500,000 cubic meters of gas. In 2023, Ukraine intends to extract 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
State company Ukrgazvydobuvannya plans to drill a record number of wells by the end of the year. This may be more than 90 wells, which is twice as many as last year (42 wells), said the head of the company, Oleg Tolmachev. According to his estimates, the number of new wells may be the highest in the last 20 years.
108 UKRAINE Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com