Lawsuits Fly in Russia-Ukraine Gas Conflict

After not being  able to come to an agreement over gas debt issues Russian state owned Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine both filed lawsuits at the Stocholm International Arbitrational Court.

After notifying Naftogaz about the supply cut and switch to prepayment, Gazprom went on filing a lawsuit against Naftogaz announcing that in a press release on the company’s website.

“Gazprom filed a lawsuit in Stockholm International Arbitration Court seeking to recover USD 4.5 billion in debt from Naftogaz of Ukraine due to the company’s non-compliance with obligations under Contract No. КП dated January 19, 2009 for natural gas purchase and sale between 2009 and 2019 (Contract), as well as its considerable outstanding debt for natural gas supplied under the Contract and non-payment of current supplies.

“In addition, the European Commission was notified in advance about possible disruptions of gas transit if Naftogaz of Ukraine illegally withdrew gas from transit flows. Gazprom has already taken and will be taking all possible efforts aimed at preventing potential disruptions of gas supply to European consumers,” the press release said.

On the other hand, Naftogaz also filed a lawsuit against Gazprom at the Stockholm court trying to recover $6 billion in what it said were overpayments to Russian exporter Gazprom.

Naftogaz said in a statement it was also demanding a “fair and market price” for natural gas supplies from Gazprom, which said earlier that it had restricted supplies to Kiev after it missed a deadline to pay $1.95 billion in gas debts.

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, June 16, 2014; Image: Gazprom