The delay of court hearings on the gas debts of Ostchem's enterprises has caused large losses to the state, a subsidiary of national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy - Gaz Ukrainy – has said.

"Disputing the lawfulness of the gas sale and purchase agreements, enterprises of Ostchem Group use the courts to avoid payments to Gaz Ukrainy for gas consumed in 2009-2011. Debtors are all Ukrainian enterprises of Ostchem Grouр and their debt is worth over UAH 4 billion… Lawyers of the group selected the tactic of delaying court hearings and artificial bankruptcies and this tactic allows chemical companies not to return debts to the state for many years," the deputy director for work with counterparties at Gaz Ukrainy, Tetiana Bondar, said during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

She said that the state faces large losses due to this.

"Calculations of the cost of state "crediting" of chemical enterprises of Ostchem Grouр (for example, at 25% per annum in hryvnias) show that in 30 days of using the sum of UAH 4 billion by the debtors costs UAH 82.2 million of direct losses to the state and one day of this "crediting" costs UAH 2.7 million to the state. It we take into account that the U.S. dollar exchange rate was UAH 8 in 2009-2010, with the current unstable exchange rate the losses of the state grows by several times," Bondar said.