Ukraine’s Naftogaz sues Gazprom for $6 billion in Stockholm arbitration (Gazprom’s report)

The Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz is claiming $3.2 billion compensation from Gazprom in a lawsuit filed with the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal for lower gas transit via Ukraine and related interest, according to a report released by Gazprom on Thursday...
Naftogaz’s total claim together with interest amounts to $6.2 billion, the Russian gas giant said in its financial statements for the first nine months of 2014.

The Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal will hold oral hearings on mutual claims filed by Gazprom and Ukraine’s national energy company Naftogaz not earlier than in February-March 2016, the Russian gas giant said in its IFRS financial statements released on Thursday.

Naftogaz filed a claim with the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal on October 13, 2014, seeking to "oblige Gazprom to pay a compensation of $3,200 million (and related interest) to Naftogaz Ukraine for the failure to provide gas for transit," the Russian gas giant’s financial statements said.

Naftogaz also seeks to acknowledge that the transit tariff stipulated in the gas contract with Gazprom "should be revised in such a way as provided in further written statements of Naftogaz Ukraine in line with key principles of the Swedish contractual law," the report said.

Russia’s gas transit to Europe via Ukraine totaled 58.9 billion cubic meters in 2014 compared with 83.9 billion cubic meters in 2013 and 92.2 billion cubic meters in 2009....................http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/77407729/1/15
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Related:

• Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine and EU uninterrupted (Ukraine's Naftogaz)

• No Reason to Revise Gas Deal With Ukraine in April (Alexander Novak, Russian EM)

• Ukraine files lawsuit contest Russian gas pricing

• Stockholm arbitration court combines Naftogaz, Gazprom lawsuits

Ukraine files lawsuit contest Russian gas pricing

Ukrainian state-run energy firm Naftogaz on Monday said it had filed a lawsuit at the Stockholm arbitration court to contest the pricing of natural gas it imports from Russian giant Gazprom.

"The lawsuit also contains a requirement to recover an amount of money from Gazprom, which Ukraine has overpaid since 2010," Naftogaz said in a statement.

The Ukrainian company estimates it has "overpaid" around 6 billion U.S. dollars to Russia due to the "unfair" gas contract.

Earlier in the day, Gazprom said it had filed a lawsuit at the Stockholm court demanding Ukraine pay off some 4.5 billion dollars of gas debt and decided to introduce the prepayment regime with Naftogaz.

The two sides have been locked in dispute for three years over a 2009 contract under which they agreed to tie the price of gas to the international spot price of oil.

• Russia initially demanded Ukraine pay 485 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Moscow then offered to remove an export duty, which would cut the price by 100 dollars. Ukraine had been holding out for a price of just over 268 dollars.

On Friday, Ukraine said it was ready to pay 326 dollars for the next 18 months while the two sides worked out a long-term price deal, but the two neighbors failed to reach a compromise during their weekend talks.
Xinhua - china.org.cn
16/6/14
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Related:

• Russia's Gazprom says Ukraine fails to pay debt by deadline... 

• In full compliance with the effective contract, Russia’s Gazprom has introduced pre-payment for gas supplies to Ukraine’s oil and gas company Naftogaz, as follows from the company’s news release. 

• Gazprom has filed a lawsuit in Stockholm arbitration seeking to collect $4.5 billion in debt for gas from Ukraine's Naftogaz, the Russian gas giant said. Gazprom has emphasized that Ukraine's Naftogaz remains contractually obligated to ensure uninterrupted transit of Russian gas bound for consumers in Europe, Gazprom said in a statement...

• Ukraine Rejects Russian Offer to Cut Gas Price

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• Ενώπιον νέας ενεργειακής κρίσης στην ΕΕ;

Ukraine ready to pay $386 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas

Ukraine is ready to pay $386 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas to Russia, Stepan Kubiv, Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), who is currently in the United States, told journalists here on Sunday.

He also pointed out that the country would meet all obligations regarding the existing debts. "Ukraine has always paid to creditors on time, basing intself on market and contractual prices," Kubiv explained. "We shall repay all our debts. And it cannot be otherwise."

Last week, in view of the denunciation of the "Kharkov Accords" about the Black Sea Fleet, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a directive on the cancellation of zero customs duties on gas for Ukraine, which automatically signifies an increase in the price of gas being supplied to Kiev up to $485 per 1,000 cu. m. of gas. The directive applies to legal relationships that has arisen since April 2, 2014.
[itar-tass.com]
14/4/14
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• Ukraine to Gazprom: We won’t accept new gas prices and are suspending payments

Ukraine to Gazprom: We won’t accept new gas prices and are suspending payments

The newly-appointed head of Ukraine’s national gas company says the country “sees no reason” to comply with the “political” hike in gas prices imposed by Russia, and will formally stop transferring money to Moscow until the situation is resolved.
In the aftermath of the toppling of Viktor Yanukovich and the secession of Crimea from Ukraine, Russia has raised from $268 to $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, starting from this month.

35 year-old Andrey Kobolev, who was appointed to head Naftogaz Ukraine, the state importer, by the government in Kiev, told ZN.UA news portal that his company is prepared to pay only the old prices.

“We believe the new price does not reflect market value, is unjustified and unacceptable. We are stopping all transfers for the duration of negotiations. We are hoping that economics will triumph over politics, as even a company of Gazprom’s size would suffer if it were to lose one of the biggest gas markets on the continent,” said Kobolev, who assumed his post a fortnight ago. 

Ukraine says that the new price is the highest in Europe for any Gazprom customer country (Gazprom does not reveal its contract prices, but the average around the EU is $370).

Russia’s state-owned gas monopolist says the new rate reflects the cancellation of earlier discounts, and no longer includes payments for hosting Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, since Sevastopol, where it is stationed, is no longer a part of Ukraine.

Ukraine, which receives about half of its gas from Russia, has already accumulated more than $2.2 billion in debt over gas payments, even before the higher price kicked in, but Kobolev said that “any issue of repayment can be resolved only as a package deal with pricing problem”. 

• Ukraine has also threatened to take Gazprom to the international arbitration court in Stockholm over the hike. 

Kobolev also stated that there is a “high threat” of disruptions to Gazprom’s energy supply, similar to those that left much of Eastern Europe without heating in January 2008, while Kiev and Moscow thrashed out a deal.

The Russian giant supplies about a third of Europe’s gas needs, and 40 percent of that gas passes through Ukraine.

On, Friday Vladimir Putin warned that Russia does not wish to “unilaterally carry the burden" of supplying Ukraine if it refuses to accept prices, though later reassured worried Europeans that Moscow has no intention of cutting off supplies for the time being.

One idea that has been mooted by Ukraine and its westward allies, is re-pumping of Gazprom’s cheaper gas supplied to other countries back into Ukraine.

This flow reversal could either be done physically – by re-engineering the pipes – or virtually, by Ukraine holding onto some of the other countries’ gas as it passes through theirs. While the first solution presents technical difficulties, both are liable to be treated as a breach of contract by Gazprom, which forbids countries from reselling its supplies under specific circumstances.

So far, Hungary and Poland have said they are ready to channel gas into Ukraine, while Slovakia is awaiting the go-ahead from Moscow.

In any case, further clarification on the issue is unlikely to happen before a mooted four-way meeting between Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the US later this month.  
rt.com
12/4/14
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• Ukraine eyes energy assistance package from EU. - Commissioner for Energy Gunter Oettinger is drafting proposals for how to pay off Ukraine’s debt

• Ukraine to save energy and extract its own gas.

• Ukraine plans to pay Russia for gas after price reduction

• Putin Says Further Violations by Ukraine Will Compel Russia to Cut Off Gas. -Russia cannot and should not unilaterally bear the burden of supporting Ukraine’s economy