“Traditionally, the industry has been about as transparent as a black box,” she says. “Only a few analysts in the whole country of Ukraine understand the oil and gas business. It’s been so complex and corrupt that it’s considered a state secret.”
That may sound like an exaggeration, but to the handful of analysts familiar with the country’s history of government and business corruption, especially among oil and gas barons who have stolen billions from deals with Russia’s Gazprom, “black box” is an apt description. Ever since Ukraine established independence in the early 1990s, the country has struggled for economic viability, losing manufacturing market share and accumulating massive oil and gas debt.
