Ukraine's Naftogaz files new lawsuit against Gazprom

Executive Director of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko says Naftogaz has filed a new lawsuit with the Stockholm Arbitration against Russia's gas giant Gazprom.

"It's our turn to file a statement of defense and counterclaims. The number of pages of the main text of our claim alone exceeds 500. Three reports of international experts, which were specially developed to this end, are attached to it, as well as witness testimonies and a bunch of other annexes," he wrote on Facebook on November 2.

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According to Vitrenko, the decision of the arbitration will be made in 2021.

"Let me remind you that it was Gazprom that 'attacked' Naftogaz. Therefore we are defending ourselves – on April 18, 2018, Gazprom appealed to the Stockholm Abitration with a demand to start arbitration proceedings. Gazprom, in fact, wants to review the previous decision of the Stockholm Arbitration on a [gas] transit contract. Technically, Gazprom requires that amendments to be made to the contract since it believes that the transit contract imposes unreasonably excessive obligations on it. This refers to Gazprom's contractual obligation to provide at least 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas for transit per year. The financial benefit is approximately US$6 billion," Vitrenko added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine has not imported gas from Russia since November 2015.

At the end of February 2018, Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom lost a lawsuit filed by Naftogaz with the Stockholm Arbitration over a gas transit contract. Gazprom was obliged to pay US$4.6 billion to the Ukrainian side.

At the same time, taking into account the arbitration award on the gas supply contract, the final amount of settlements between the two companies is US$2.6 billion in favor of Naftogaz.

Against the backdrop of their loss, Gazprom announced their intention to terminate via court its contracts with Ukraine for the supply and transit of gas.

In March 2018, Gazprom officially notified Naftogaz of their refusal to comply with the arbitration award.

In the summer of 2018, Naftogaz filed a new lawsuit with the Stockholm Arbitration seeking a revision of the gas transit tariff under a contract with Gazprom.

Naftogaz has been demanding the revision of the tariff from March 2018 (to the end of 2019). The company tentatively estimated its claims at about US$12 billion.