Photo from UNIAN
CEO of national joint-stock company (NJSC) Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolev says his company is ready to resume gas purchases from Russia's gas giant Gazprom if the Russian company abides by a ruling of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce on a relevant contract signed by the two companies in 2009 for a period until 2019.
"The price should be revised after the first ruling of the Stockholm Arbitration on gas supplies. And as soon as Gazprom complies with the decision of the tribunal, we are ready to start buying gas from them," he said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, June 22.
Yet, Kobolev said that it was not clear how much time Gazprom would need to abide by the tribunal's decision, and therefore Naftogaz did not expect that gas purchases would re-start this year.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Naftogaz of Ukraine CEO Andriy Kobolev announced that the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce had ruled that the price of natural gas Ukraine bought from Russia's gas giant Gazprom at in 2011-2015 should be reviewed retroactively, and ordered that the review should cover the period starting from 2014.
UNIAN's memo. The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has been considering the claims filed by Naftogaz on behalf of Ukraine against Russia's Gazprom regarding the transit of Russian gas to the EU through Ukraine and the purchase of Russian gas by Ukraine.
On June 1, it became known that the Arbitration Institute had satisfied Naftogaz's claim to review the price under the 2009 gas purchase contract with Gazprom, taking into account market conditions.
Also, there was a separate ruling to cancel Gazprom's "take or pay" rule, according to which Ukraine was either to buy 52 billion cubic meters of gas every year or pay the price of it even if not the entire contracted volume was bought.
In addition, Gazprom's ban on gas resale was lifted.