15:39 19.07.2019

Courts of Netherlands, Luxembourg turn down Gazprom's appeals Against enforcement of Stockholm arbitration award

2 min read
Courts of Netherlands, Luxembourg turn down Gazprom's appeals Against enforcement of Stockholm arbitration award

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal rejected on July 8 Gazprom's appeal regarding the court's jurisdiction and thereby confirmed its authority in the case over the recognition and enforcement of the decision of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in Dutch territory, NSC Naftogaz Ukrainy said in a statement.

On the same day, a district court in Luxembourg also ruled in favor of Naftogaz, rejecting Gazprom's appeal and upholding the freezing of assets in that country's territory under the Stockholm court's ruling.

A special purpose vehicle was registered in Luxembourg as the issuer for Gazprom's current eurobond program. The outcome of the case in Luxembourg will determine Gazprom's further steps related to the placement of new eurobonds under this program.

As reported, at the end of February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce satisfied the claims of Naftogaz against Gazprom over the violation of contractual obligations on the transit of Russia's natural gas through Ukraine. The court ruled on the payment of compensation for the volumes that were undelivered, but Gazprom does not abide by the court's decision.

The Stockholm arbitration ordered Gazprom to pay $4.63 billion to Naftogaz for the short supply of natural gas contracted for transit. Taking into account the fact that the court had previously confirmed the Ukrainian side's debt for gas supplies, according to the results of two arbitration disputes between the companies for gas supply and gas transit, Gazprom must now pay $2.56 billion to Naftogaz.

Naftogaz is now seeking recovery of debts from Gazprom through in international courts by freezing Gazprom assets in Switzerland, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In addition, in December 2018, the U.S. Federal Court in New York allowed Naftogaz to obtain information from Glas Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and Bank of New York about Gazprom assets in Europe.

AD
AD
AD
AD
AD