Naftohaz of Ukraine will be headed by Minister of Communities and Territories Development Oleksiy Chernyshov instead of Yuriy Vitrenko, sources familiar with the situation reported to LB.ua.
This personnel change may take place at the next plenary week of the Verkhovna Rada.
MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Voice) said on Telegram that, according to him, the Ministry headed by Chernyshov may allegedly be merged with the Ministry of Infrastructure. In this case, Oleksiy Kubrakov will remain in charge of it.
The issue of merging the ministries has not yet been resolved. The interlocutors of LB.ua noted that there are many voices against it.
Yuriy Vitrenko became the head of Naftohaz of Ukraine in 2021 to replace Andriy Kobolyev, who was dismissed in a scandal. In April 2022, the government re-elected Vitrenko to lead the company for another year, but in September, the head of Naftohaz began to talk about his possible resignation. This was due to disagreements between the NJSC and the government over Eurobonds.
On 26 July, the Cabinet of Ministers did not allow Naftogaz to pay on Eurobonds, so the company defaulted. At the same time, the NJSC stressed that there were enough funds in the accounts to prevent this.
The next day, the company announced that it would immediately propose a new agreement to obtain the consent of Eurobond holders to defer payments. Later, the government approved new terms for restructuring the company's debts to creditors. In September, Vitrenko said he was ready to resign if it would help restructure the company's debt.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Ministers reported that they do not rule out the possibility of personnel rotation in Naftohaz if the issue with the bonds is not resolved.