PRESS: Naftogaz Ukrainy goes to US courts to make Gazprom pay

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (PRIME) -- Ukrainian energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy has involved U.S. courts into its dispute with gas giant Gazprom trying to force the Russian company to pay U.S. $2.6 billion under the Stockholm arbitration ruling, Kommersant business daily reported on Wednesday.

On December 6, Naftogaz Ukrainy filed suits against the U.S. division of Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T USA) and consulting company DeGolyer & MacNaughton to the U.S. district courts of the Northern and Southern districts of Texas, asking for access to the documents, which may help it in proceedings against Gazprom in the Netherlands.

Naftogaz Ukrainy has been trying to enforce collection from Gazprom in Switzerland, the U.K., and the Netherlands since June. In the Netherlands, the company wanted to arrest Gazprom’s shares in South Stream Transport B.V., Gazprom Achim B.V., Gazprom EP International B.V., Gazprom Finance B.V., Gazprom Sakhalin Holdings B.V., Blue Stream Pipeline Co. B.V., and Gazprom Holding Cooperatie U.A.

It only arrested shares in Blue Stream, while the other companies, except South Stream Transport, presented documents proving that Gazprom does not own them. Naftogaz Ukrainy’s lawyers think that South Stream Transport was transferred to Gazprom’s Russian subsidiary, Gazprom Transgaz Krasnodar, one day before the arrest was approved.

The Ukrainian company is now preparing another suit against Gazprom in the Netherlands trying to prove that the transfer of South Stream Transport to another subsidiary was an attempt to evade arrest. Gazprom’s materials in the Texas courts say that the transfer was a part of restructuring planned a long time ago, but Naftogaz Ukrainy wants to contest that and find proof in the documents of GM&T USA and DeGolyer & MacNaughton.

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