The amount of the claims filed by national joint stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine against Russian gas monopoly Gazprom under a lawsuit lodged with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce was US$28.3 billion as of July 31, 2016, according to the Ukrainian company`s annual report for 2015 published on its website.
Naftogaz is reported to be seeking to recover $18.1 billion from Gazprom for demands that the price of gas purchased from May 20, 2011, to October 2015 (including penalties and interest) be changed and revised. Additionally, Naftogaz demands the payment of $10.2 billion by Gazprom for the failure to fulfill obligations under contracts for gas transit shipments through Ukraine`s territory in 2009-2015.
At the same time, Gazprom`s claims against Naftogaz total $38.7 billion, including $29.2 billion charged as a penalty for the alleged violation of the ”take-or-pay” rules (amounts of gas that has not been bought under a gas purchase contract) in 2012- 2014 and the third quarter of 2015.
Naftogaz has initiated litigation against Gazprom in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in relation to two contracts. One concerns transit shipments of Russian gas to the European Union via Ukraine and the other one deals with purchases of Russian gas by Ukraine.
In mid-March 2016, Gazprom raised its claims against Naftogaz in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce to $31.759 billion from $29.2 billion.
Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev, in turn, estimated the total sum of claims against Gazprom at $30 billion.
In early July, Kobolev said that hearings in the Stockholm arbitration court under the gas supply contract signed between Naftogaz and Gazprom would start in late September, and hearings under the transit contract are scheduled to begin in late November 2016.
Early in August 2016, Naftogaz`s press service said the company`s claims against Gazprom exceeded $26.6 billion.