Ukraine

On November 5th 2010, international energy experts, civil society activists and members of the Ukrainian government participated in a conference to discuss the EITI process in Ukraine. The conference’s purpose was to emphasise the importance of the EITI for Ukraine, to demonstrate the experience of countries which implement EITI and to highlight the importance of transparency in the transit of oil and gas through Ukraine and Georgia.

This is the story of a trade that brings natural gas from the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan through Russia and Ukraine to the European Union (EU). Far from being open to scrutiny by the citizens of these countries, this trade has long been controlled by a handful of people and a series of mysterious intermediary companies. Although the business is worth billions of dollars a year, it is still unclear where much of this money goes.

The EU is increasingly reliant on gas supplies from the former Soviet Union.