"Naftogaz of Ukraine" recalled "Gazrom" overpayments for gas in the EU

Kiev plans to seek from Gazprom $ 110 million for forced purchase of gas in the EU countries.
26.09.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
Naftogaz of Ukraine, within the framework of the forthcoming dispute with Gazprom in the Stockholm Arbitration, demanded from the Russian company to compensate for the overpayment, which it is forced to use when buying gas from EU companies instead of monopoly. According to Naftogaz, by the present moment its losses have reached $ 110 million. According to Kommersant, arbitration is unlikely to be able to resolve this dispute until 2020, but even in the worst case, Gazprom's losses will be limited - about $ 120 million per year.

Naftogaz intends to demand compensation from Gazprom from Gazprom, buying gas to the EU instead of receiving it under a contract with Gazprom, changed in accordance with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration in December 2017. "We started a new arbitration and intend to force Gazprom to compensate for the difference between the gas we buy in the European market and the gas that would have been under the contract changed in the arbitration," Yury Vitrenko, commercial director of Naftogaz, conference, which was broadcast on the company's Facebook page. According to him, the amount of compensation "already exceeds $ 110 million".

The essence of the problem is that in December 2017, Stockholm arbitration changed the terms of the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz. As a result, the volume of the contract was reduced tenfold - up to 5 billion cubic meters per year, the volume of compulsory selection - up to 4 billion cubic meters. But the main change was in pricing: "Gazprom" should now sell gas to "Naftogaz" at the quotes of the German NCG hub (quote for a month in advance), and not on the oil formula.

Since Naftogaz purchases gas in Europe on the basis of the "hub price plus transportation" principle, the arbitration decision made gas purchase from Gazprom a priori more profitable than buying in the EU. Nevertheless, Gazprom was ready to start supplying gas on January 1 and suggested that Naftogaz sign an additional agreement. However, the Ukrainian company decided to wait for the verdict of the Stockholm arbitration in the second dispute (under the contract for transit). In February, this decision was made in favor of Naftogaz, and after that, Gazprom virtually refused to supply gas to Ukraine, and on April 20 filed a lawsuit with the Stockholm Arbitration on the dissolution of both contracts with Naftogaz, which are already expiring to 2020.

According to Kommersant's data, Naftogaz's current claim for compensation was transferred to Gazprom on May 22 as part of the documents filed in response to the claim of the Russian monopoly on the dissolution of contracts. Given that the panel of arbitrators on this dispute has not even been appointed, most likely, decisions can be expected no earlier than 2020, the interlocutors of Kommersant believe. In addition to this dispute, on July 10, the demand for Naftogaz to raise the tariff for gas transit and to collect from Gazprom 11.5 billion was sent to arbitration on July 10 (see Kommersant on July 9).

Thus, the Stockholm Arbitration again reviews two lawsuits of companies against each other, in addition to the fact that Gazprom disputes the two already rendered arbitration awards in the Court of Appeal of Sweden.

Against the background of other requirements of Naftogaz, measured in billions of dollars, the compensation for the price difference looks rather modest. According to Kommersant's calculations, in March-August the differential between the price of NCG and the price of actual gas imports to Ukraine from the EU averaged about $ 23 per thousand cubic meters (in fact, this is the cost of transportation). That is, with the volume of the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz of 5 billion cubic meters, the maximum annual compensation may be about $ 120 million. At the same time, Gazprom, without supplying gas to Ukraine, does not lose revenue - the same amounts of gas are just additional are delivered to the EU market, from where they leave for Ukraine.

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