Supreme Court upholds 8 bln rbl redemption of Varandei terminal

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (PRIME) -- The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld the decisions of lower courts that obliged Russian oil major Lukoil’s affiliate Varandei terminal to redeem 7.9 billion rubles to Bashneft-Polyus, a joint venture of oil companies Bashneft and Lukoil, as seen by PRIME on Tuesday in the materials of the register of arbitration cases.

Supreme Court Judge Natalya Chuchunova turned down a cassation appeal of the Lukoil subsidiary that asked the court to submit the case to the judicial chamber for economic disputes for reconsideration.

Previously, several courts, including the Supreme Court, sided with the Federal Antimonopoly Service, which said that the Varandei terminal had a monopolistically high tariff of U.S. $38 per tonne for oil transshipment in 2015–2019.

The antimonopoly service in March 2019 ordered the terminal to reduce the tariff for oil transshipment to make it economically justified and switch the currency of its tariffs to the ruble. In October 2019, the service included the terminal in the list of natural monopolies and set the maximum tariff at 1,211 rubles, or about $16, per tonne.

According to the Supreme Court, the tariff of $38 per tonne was set in 2013, when it included the cost of a loan attracted for construction of the terminal. The facility paid off the loan by 2015 but did not cut the tariff, and has been receiving excessive income.

Bashneft-Polyus exported oil under a contract with Lukoil’s Swiss oil trader Litasco at an exchange price minus $38. A contract between Litasco and the terminal also had a transshipment tariff of $38, which made the Supreme Court to believe that transshipment expenses were passed on to Bashneft-Polyus.

The joint venture later filed a suit demanding redemption of 9.5 billion rubles, and the Arbitration Court of the Arkhangelsk Region partially approved the suit in February 2022 and made the Varandei terminal redeem 2.6 billion rubles to Bashneft-Polyus. The court also said that the claimant missed the statute of limitations for seeking redemption of losses incurred in the period from 2015 through October 2017. Bashneft-Polyus filed an appeal against the decision.

The 14th Arbitration Court of Appeal did not agree with the lower court’s decision, and included the discarded period into the calculation of losses, raising the redemption sum to 7.9 billion rubles, and the Arbitration Court of the Northwest Federal District sided with the decision in September 2022.

(70.3002 rubles – U.S. $1)

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