Russia seizes over 7 bcm of Ukrainian gas in annexed Crimea – expert

President of the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI" Mykhailo Honchar, an expert on energy, says over 7 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas has already been seized from Ukrainian deposits on the shallow shelf of the Black Sea since the annexation of the peninsula.

Read alsoNaftogaz expects to recover from Russia $8 bln over assets seized in Crimea"Russia is likely to stop using such gas after a gas pipeline from Taman to Crimea through the Kerch Strait has been commissioned. Moscow is well aware that the offshore deposits which the gas is being stolen from are not related to Crimea, and sooner or later, it will have to bear responsibility for illegally appropriated property and compensate for the damage," the expert told the Ukrainian news outlet Glavred.

The gas is stolen by the fake enterprise Chernomorneftegaz, which was created on the basis of assets seized from Ukrainian-registered Chornomornaftogaz and which is now managed by the Russian-controlled administration.

A mechanism of international courts could be used to hold Russia accountable for illegal gas production on the annexed Crimea's shelf.

Honchar says that Russian invaders cannot invest in the said deposits as Russian companies will then fall under the sanctions regime, while the de-facto authorities in Crimea have no proper investment resources, so shelf gas production is now on the decline.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the filing of a new lawsuit by Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce against National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine to terminate the existing contracts does not cancel its obligations, hence Gazprom still owes US$2.56 billion to the Ukrainian company.