Energy Ministry announces elimination of legal uncertainty in market for gas supply system operation services
The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has amended Order No. 402 On approval of the rules for technical operation of gas supply systems, of October 21, 2024, which, in particular eliminated legal uncertainties in the field of technical maintenance of smoke and ventilation ducts.
"The Ministry of Energy has issued an order that makes appropriate amendments to Order 402. Currently, this makes it possible to avoid legal uncertainty and ensures the stable functioning of the market for the provision of gas supply system operation services," the department said on May 30.
In particular, as stated by the Ministry of Energy, this order eliminated regulatory obstacles to the functioning of the market for the provision of services (works) in the field of technical maintenance of smoke and ventilation ducts of municipal facilities and residential and public buildings.
The ministry said Order No. 402, which entered into force on February 20, 2025, was issued in implementation of the Law On the natural gas market and Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1 Some issues of optimizing the activities of central executive authorities in the field of state energy supervision (control) in the natural gas market, of January 3, 2024.
"This order normalizes the technical operation of gas supply systems, which is extremely important for gas consumers," the department said.
At the same time, the Ministry of Energy assures that during the preparation of draft order No. 402, the comments of the interested bodies were taken into account regarding the mandatory presence of service providers' own information and communication system and its protection as a prerequisite for obtaining a conclusion of the entity's compliance with the requirements for ensuring the proper performance of maintenance work on smoke and ventilation ducts.
At the same time, due to the adoption of Law No. 4336-IX On amendments to certain Laws of Ukraine on information protection and cybersecurity of state information resources, critical information infrastructure objects, which entered into force on April 20 of the same year, there was a need to bring certain subordinate regulatory legal acts into compliance. Currently, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection is taking measures to prepare relevant government acts.
"After the relevant government acts prepared by the State Commission for Special Communications, the Ministry of Energy will bring Order 402 into line with the adopted regulatory legal acts. The digitalization of the sphere resolves the issue of fictitious inspection acts, the uncontrolled issuance of which led to accidents and casualties among the population," the department said.
In turn, MP Oleksandr Fediyenko last week suggested that the Ministry of Energy's requirement for companies providing technical maintenance of smoke and ventilation ducts to have their own information and communication system and its protection may indicate manifestations of unfair competition and attempts to eliminate competitors in favor of individual market players.
"Based on my experience, I personally see a not entirely honest ecosystem of future competition there. In order to weed out competitors, they then introduced information and communication system and its protection as mandatory," he said on Facebook on May 29.
