Naftogaz sues Gazprom: Ukraine’s energy company Naftogaz last week filed a new lawsuit in Stockholm’ s international court seeking a further $10bn in compensation from Gazprom for ‘unfair’ losses from its gas transit contract with Russia’s state-owned gas company. A lawsuit for $6bn is already pending, and over the past year Gazprom has countersued its Ukrainian counterpart for a total of $24bn for its alleged failure to pay for gas already delivered.
Naftogaz’s action is the latest development in the long-running dispute between the two countries over a 10-year gas agreement that they signed in 2009 and which the authorities in Kiev claim has lumbered Ukraine with gas prices far above the going market rate now that spot oil prices have plummeted. They are also challenging the $24bn that Russia claims Naftogaz owes for past deliveries, again claiming that the gas was overpriced.
Around 50% of the gas that Russia exports to the EU transits through the Ukraine, and last month the EU’s new antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager also launched a legal attack on Gazprom, accusing it of overcharging gas distributors in Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, and of stifling competition.
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