UPDATE: Official: Russia’s Rosneft fails to pay bill sent by Transneft

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MOSCOW, Dec 29 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Rosneft has not paid Transneft for oil traffic via its pipelines for 2017 under a payment assignment which Transneft sent on Thursday, aide to the president of Transneft Igor Dyomin told reporters.

Earlier on Thursday, the Moscow Arbitration Court prohibited Transneft to suspend transit of Rosneft’s oil via the company’s pipes on January 1, 2017 under a nonpayment case. The court stipulated that Rosneft file a suit against Transneft until January 25, or the restrictive measures will be lifted.

Dyomin said, “This way, with a continuing inaction, the managers of Rosneft are once again trying to put the work of Transneft out of the legal framework, forcing to get exclusive, non-standard for the market payment conditions.”

He also said that Transneft sees the situation surrounding the claim of Rosneft as an attempt to harm the business reputation of Transneft.

“The media is disseminating unproven statements of an alleged oil transportation halt, which is technically impossible. The goal of the entire combination is to directly motivate Transneft to work out of the legal framework and to harm its business reputation.”

According to the materials of the case, Rosneft paid Transneft for oil transportation services in 2017, but the companies have not signed an agreement as they failed to coordinate its conditions. The pipeline monopoly said that it has the right to suspend the transit of Rosneft’s oil from January 1, 2017, if the contract is not signed.

Rosneft said that daily transportation of oil through Transneft’s pipes amounts to up to 1.3 million tonnes, and suspension of transportation will lead to a suspension of development of many fields and to an irredeemable damage inflicted on the company, its employees and the state due to a sharp deficit at the oil and oil product markets.

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