Gazprom, which has announced decision to shut down RosUkrEnergo (RUE), will apparently postpone the liquidation of the scandalous gas trader as the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal ruled that the Hungarian company Emfezs should pay RUE US $527.3 mn (not including commission), according to KyivWeekly newspaper.
The Stockholm tribunal rejected the demands of Emfezs, which according to some media is a part of the interest of the businessmen Sergei Prokofiev and the brothers Ihor and Oleg Putin from Kurgan, Russia. The RUE shareholders now can count on half a billion dollars. Gazprom has a 50% stake in RUE, while the rest belongs to the Austrian company Centrgas owned by Dmytro Firtash.
“A month ago it seemed that RUE was done for good. Gazprom borrowed US $550 mn from Firtash at an interest rate of 3.5% per annum, thereby wresting from him profits of the sale of 12.1 bn cubic meters of gas that Ukraine returned to the ownership of RUE upon the ruling of the Stockholm tribunal.
After that Firtash’ intermediary company became superfluous for Gazprom and the latter began setting up a new gas intermediary – either its own subsidiary Gazprom Sales Ukraine, or a new joint venture with Naftogas,” said expert at the International Center for Policy Studies Oleksandr Zholud.
“Despite this, the prospect of earning another half billion form RUE is looming and until this money is not received on the bank account of the Firtash’ company, a process that may be dragged seeing as Emfesz does not have the required sum, the Russian gas monopoly is in no Rush to liquidate the company,” Zholud added.
