REUTERS
Chief Commercial Officer of national oil and gas holding Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko says the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is to make final decisions by the end of November 2017 on mutual claims between NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom in relation to two contracts for the purchase and transit of gas in 2009-2019.
The deadline for the decisions has now been set for both the gas purchase contract and gas transit contract, that is the end of November this year," Vitrenko wrote on Facebook.
He also noted that Naftogaz requires that Gazprom bring the gas transit contract in line with European and Ukrainian energy legislation.
"[They should] revise (including retrospectively) the tariff in accordance with terms of setting European tariffs, as well as reimburse our lost revenue from transit. We are talking about compensation worth from several billion dollars to an amount that is well over $10 billion. Each day, the sum grows by the amount not received during this period," Vitrenko posted.
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According to Naftogaz, the amount of its claims against Gazprom under the gas purchase contract was $30.3 billion as of May 29, 2017, of which $14.1 billion was required for revision of the price for gas consumed by Ukraine in 2011-2015. Those from Gazprom against Naftogaz totaled $47.1 billion, of which $34.45 billion was related to Gazprom's "take-or-pay" sanction.
In late May 2017, Naftogaz received a separate ruling of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce related to the gas purchase contract. Thus, the court satisfied a number of demands of the Ukrainian side and abolished the "take-or-pay" principle, according to which Ukraine shall annually purchase 52 billion cubic meters of gas or pay for its cost, without even pumping the entire volume. The arbitration also satisfied the demand of Naftogaz and completely abolished Gazprom's ban on gas re-export.
Following that, the parties failed to independently determine the amount of compensation, and therefore, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce began hearings on the positions of Naftogaz and Gazprom on October 9, 2017, to make a final decision on the gas purchase contract.