Dissertation for obtaining the scientific degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences in the specialty 12.00.07 – Administrative Law and Procedure; Financial Law; Information Law. – Research Institute of Public Law, Kyiv, 2026.
The dissertation is one of the first comprehensive monographic studies in Ukraine devoted to the administrative and legal principles of preventing offenses in the oil and gas sector in general and under the special legal regime of martial law in particular. The study clarifies the essence, content, features, and types of offenses committed in the oil and gas sector, determines the administrative and legal status of entities engaged in activities aimed at preventing such offenses, provides a characterization of the content of administrative and legal support for preventing such delicts, and develops a set of measures aimed at improving national legislation and the practice of its application in this field.
Problematic issues that require further study and resolution are highlighted: improvement of administrative and legal norms regarding administrative liability for violations of environmental protection legislation by oil and gas enterprises; improvement of compliance procedures at enterprises engaged in oil and gas extraction; differentiation between administrative and criminal offenses committed in the oil and gas sector and their updating; bringing national administrative legislation into compliance with international and European standards for ensuring activities in the oil and gas sector.
The analysis of international experience made it possible to identify several key directions in which measures to prevent offenses in the oil and gas sector are implemented: combating corruption, ensuring transparency and integrity of activities in the oil and gas sector; ensuring safe conditions for conducting activities in the oil and gas sector; environmental protection; development and implementation of appropriate compliance procedures; promoting the development of the energy complex and protection of critical infrastructure facilities.
It is determined that the concept of a subject of administrative law is indeed generalized and broader than the concept of a subject of administrative legal relations. For example, within the oil and gas sector, subjects of administrative law may include all persons endowed with administrative legal capacity, whereas subjects of administrative legal relations are specific participants in legal relations in the oil and gas sector. For the former, the exercise of rights and performance of obligations (for example, the possibility of obtaining a license) is a theoretically existing legal possibility, whereas for the latter it is a legal fact that has already occurred, meaning that such persons already have legal relations regarding activities in the oil and gas sector and are endowed with a specific set of rights and obligations.
It is proven that the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities is the main subject of compliance procedures in the oil and gas sector. The Commission is involved in: formation and implementation of regulatory measures through the development and approval of instructions, conditions and rules for licensed activities, investment programs, methodologies, procedures, algorithms, standard forms of business contracts, etc.; formation and implementation of organizational and control measures through monitoring compliance with licensing conditions and determining access conditions to goods and services produced in the oil and gas sector; formation and implementation of sanctioning measures through the adoption of decisions on the application of administrative and economic sanctions and prevention of violations of licensing conditions.
It is established that control spheres may be differentiated depending on the powers of the entities exercising them as follows: control over subsoil use (State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine); control over compliance with environmental legislation (State Environmental Inspectorate); control over licensing procedures in the oil and gas sector (National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities); control over compliance with rules for the functioning of energy markets and economic justification of prices and tariffs (National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities); control over compliance with occupational safety and industrial safety rules (State Labor Service of Ukraine). Accordingly, supervision and control in the oil and gas sector are carried out at the state level and at the local level by local self-government bodies.
