CEO: Gazprom to contest Stockholm court ruling as insufficient

MOSCOW, Jun 30 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom will challenge a preliminary ruling by the Stockholm arbitration court to collect over U.S. $1.7 billion from Ukraine’s Naftogaz Ukrainy, CEO Alexei Miller said at a press conference on Friday.

“At the same time, the line of reasoning by the arbiters in the preliminary decision seems insufficient in many respects, and Gazprom has decided to contest the preliminary decision of the Stockholm arbitration court in the court of appeals of Sweden,” Miller said.

The Russian and the Ukrainian company have been litigating since 2014 over contracts on gas supplies to Ukraine and gas transit across Ukraine. The preliminary ruling of the Stockholm court was made on May 31, its details were not disclosed.

Miller also said that Gazprom has notified the Ukrainian government of arrest of its assets in the country saying that if no measures are taken, the company can turn to an international arbitration court.

The Ukrainian antimonopoly committee imposed a $3.4 billion fine in 2015 to punish Gazprom for its monopolist position on the gas transit market. In October 2016, the fine increased to $6.4 billion for a jeopardized payment. Gazprom contested the fine as it does not operate on the market of Ukraine, but all appeals were futile.

In May, Kiev seized a 40% stake in Gazprom’s local company Gaztransit and on Tuesday wrote off $3.1 million off its dividends as part of the fine.

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