Court hearings on Natogaz's claim to freeze Gazprom assets scheduled for June and December

Preliminary hearings in Luxembourg on a claim filed by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine demanding that assets of Russia's Gazprom be frozen are scheduled for June 2019.

This is stated in Gazprom's quarterly IFRS reporting, the Ukrainian news portal liga.net said.

To protect its rights, Gazprom in April 2019 filed a lawsuit in a Luxembourg court challenging the seizure.

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On May 24, Gazprom also appealed to the Court of Appeals of Luxembourg against a decision of a Luxembourg court dated March 12 on the recognition and enforcement of a transit award in Luxembourg. No appeal date has been set.

According to the company's quarterly report, a hearing in a court in the Netherlands in a similar case will be held in December 2019.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Stockholm Arbitration on February 28, 2018, ruled that Gazprom should pay Naftogaz more than US$4.6 billion for the short supply of gas for transit provided for in bilateral agreements. Earlier, the court confirmed the Ukrainian company's US$2 billion debt for consumed Russian gas. As a result of two arbitration disputes between the companies regarding the supply and transit of gas, Gazprom shall pay US$2.56 billion to Naftogaz.

In early March 2018, Gazprom warned about the beginning of the termination of bilateral agreements with the Ukrainian side.

In July 2018, Naftogaz lodged a second lawsuit against Gazprom with the Stockholm Arbitration. The Ukrainian company demands that the Russian company revise gas transit tariffs set in March 2013, and pay $12.5 billion in debt. Russia's Gazprom, in turn, filed a lawsuit for termination of the gas transit contract with Naftogaz. The Stockholm Arbitration combined both claims into one case.

Litigation to seize Gazprom's assets is under way in England, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Among the assets of interest to the Ukrainian side are shares of companies that operate the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.

Every day of delay in the payment of the award adds $0.5 million to Gazprom's debt before Naftogaz, which amounted to $2.7 billion as of the end of November 2018.