REUTERS
The claims are justified by the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers by its inaction failed to identify the sources of financing and the procedure for determining the compensation for gas supplied to the entities of natural gas market.
National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine has lodged a lawsuit with Kyiv's Economic Court to recover UAH 6.634 billion (US$237.3 million) in compensation from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for the damages incurred by the company.
"In October 2018, Naftogaz lodged a lawsuit with the Economic Court of the city of Kyiv against the Cabinet of Ministers for the recovery of UAH 6.634 billion in damage incurred [by the company]," reads the court's ruling of October 3.
Read alsoNaftogaz maintains gas prices for industry as of Nov 1
According to the document, the claims are justified by the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers by its inaction, that is failure to identify the sources of financing and the procedure for determining the compensation for gas supplied to the entities of natural gas market, caused Naftogaz damage estimated at the said amount.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Naftogaz CCO Yuriy Vitrenko said on October 24 the company planned to make public claims to the government on compensation for gas supplies to households at a preferential price.
At the same time, he said the information that the company demanded UAH 230 billion ($8.2 billion) from the government is false.
The media earlier reported that Naftogaz was asking the Cabinet to provide UAH 230 billion in support of its activities and reimbursement of gas supplies to households in the 2019 state budget.
On January 23, 2018, Naftogaz and its subsidiary, Ukraine's largest state-run gas producer PJSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya, asked Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers to reimburse UAH 111 billion ($3.97 billion) for their two-year fulfillment of unprofitable state obligations, that is gas supplies to households via privately owned regional intermediary gas companies.
Naftogaz also noted that last year the company won a number of lawsuits against the Cabinet. The court ordered the government to develop a procedure and find sources of compensation. The Naftogaz management also criticized the existing mechanism of special obligations on the gas market and stated that the current system leads to multi-billion losses of the state. It must be urgently abolished and replaced by transparent market conditions.
UNIAN memo. NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine is the largest state-run vertically integrated oil and gas holding whose subsidiaries account for about 90% of oil and gas production in Ukraine. Naftogaz develops oil and gas fields, produces crude oil and natural gas. Its core business is also transportation and trade in fuel through its own network of filling stations.