Russia’s Novatek sues Gazprom for not giving pipeline access

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) -- Russian gas producer Novatek has filed a lawsuit against Gazprom, the key gas producer and gas pipeline monopolist, to the Moscow Arbitration Court for rejecting access to a pipeline leading to plants of steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) on Friday.

Preliminary hearings of the case was slated for March 23.

NLMK, Stoilensky ore dressing plant, NLMK-Kaluga, Dolomit and Stagdok were listed as the third parties in the case.

Novatek earlier signed a 5-year agreement to ship 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas to all Russian plants of NLMK starting from January 1, 2016.

A case over the absence of access to Gazprom’s pipeline was earlier submitted by oil major Rosneft which is also developing the gas business. Two first instance courts dismissed the claim but the Arbitration Court of the Far East Federal District ordered Gazprom to provide the pipeline access, and the Supreme Court dismissed cassation claims by Gazprom and its affiliate Sakhalin Energy against this ruling in December.

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