NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, which owns a controlling stake in the country's largest oil company, Ukrnafta, intends to use the capabilities of the national company to increase oil production, Yuriy Vitrenko, the head of the company board, has said.

"We want to significantly increase oil production as well," he said at the VI Kyiv conference of Newfolk Oil and Gas Consulting Center "Drilling. Intensification. Ecology and Labor Protection."

Vitrenko noted that work on the transformation of Ukrnafta continues.

"We want to use the capabilities of the national company in order to use the oil potential or oil production potential in Ukraine more efficiently," Vitrenko stressed.

The former head of the Naftogaz board, Andriy Kobolev, who was dismissed at the end of April this year, advocated the division of Ukrnafta's assets into business areas with minority shareholders.

At the same time, Vitrenko, after joining the management of Naftogaz, announced the need to further study this issue and proposed to consider the merger of Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta (Kremenchuk oil refinery) with the subsequent receipt of a controlling stake in the new vertically integrated company by the state. In this regard, the new head of Naftogaz admitted a refusal to divide the assets of PJSC Ukrnafta between the state and minority shareholders.

NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy owns a 50% plus one share in Ukrnafta, while a group of companies associated with Ihor Kolomoisky and other former shareholders of PrivatBank hold about 42% of the shares.

NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy owns 43.05% of Ukrtatnafta shares, another 28% are controlled by the structures of the ex-owners of PrivatBank and businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky.