Geoffrey Pyatt: Ukraine has made great strides towards greater transparency and accountability in the energy sector – Naftogaz is an example

Geoffrey Pyatt, the head of the Bureau of Energy Resources at the US Department of State, stated this in an interview with Voice of America.

Naftogaz is a company that had huge problems in the past, in part because Russia used gas, transit and gas sales as a vector of corruption to maintain control over the people of Ukraine. The answer to that is to build a corporate governance structure that meets the highest European Union OECD standards," said Geoffrey Pyatt.

The Head of the Bureau noted that Oleksiy Chernyshov, the Head of Naftogaz Group, has committed to that objective.

Naftogaz CEO [Oleksiy] Chernyshov has committed to that objective. He has brought in a new advisory board, which has credible international partners. That doesn't mean the problem is solved. But you can look at the performance figures that Naftogaz has established over the past year and for the first time in many years Naftogaz production numbers went up from domestic sources of gas. I can't tell you whether those are new molecules, or those are molecules that just weren't in the books before. But in either scenario, that's a positive development and it reflects progress," said Geoffrey Pyatt.