Supply the articles where necessary. oil and gas industries former ussr were one very few industrial success stories of the final years of soviet regime. today, those same industries, now operating within cis, are in deep crises. production and exports of sector's two key products - oil and gas -fell by half between 1989 and 1994. it's not all bad news, of course: over first eight months of rate of decline in fuel and energy production was less than 2% per cent compared to last year. equally dramatic changes are yet to come as ukraine and cis countries shift to market economy. major western oil companies, however, have been moving away from ukraine because risks involved: unfriendly tax uncertain political climate, financial problems and problems of negotiating with local, regional and central authorities. last but not least, comes the difficulty of repatriating profits. according to official fuel and energy ministry figures, as of january 1, 1995, ukraine had 1,910 oil fields and 410 gas fields, of which 1,020 are commercially operated, accounting for 72 per cent of reserves. 50.4 per cent of these reserves have already been worked out. was first produced commercially in 1864.
