Russia’s Gazprom refuses to abide by final and binding awards of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce regarding gas supply to Ukraine and gas transit via the country, the press service of national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy reported after the negotiations with Gazprom held last week. “At that meeting Gazprom made clear that the Russian gas monopoly refuses to resume deliveries to Ukraine as ordered by the Tribunal in the Gas Sales Case concluded in December last year, and refused to confirm that it will pay the 2.6 billion dollars which the Tribunal ordered it to pay in the Gas Transit Case award which was rendered in February,” Naftogaz said.
Both arbitration awards are final and binding on Gazprom, the company said.
Naftogaz said that “Gazprom’s position in the meeting was instead to amend the contracts or to terminate the contracts to reverse the decisions of the Tribunal. Both positions are in direct contravention of and disregard for the decisions in the Arbitral Awards rendered by the Stockholm Tribunal. Naftogaz finds this position unacceptable and has rejected Gazprom’s proposals to this effect.”
The parties agreed to have another round of negotiations in April.
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy plans to enter the eurobond market in 2018 and expects that investors would positively react to this step, as the company sees profits, Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andriy Kobolev said on Bloomberg TV Europe. “We hope that Gazprom would execute the decision of the arbitration tribunal,” he said. Kobolev also said that Ukraine and Naftogaz insist that Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline cannot be built, as Russia does not want to divide the politics and gas supplies.
