The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ruled that Naftogaz owes $197 million to Rosukrenergo, a shady gas intermediary owned by a Ukrainian tycoon who supports President Viktor Yanukovych. An intermediate decision by the tribunal of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce on a claim by Swiss-based RosUkrEnergo gas trader against JSC Naftogaz Ukrainy on the payment by the Ukrainian company of $197 million to the plaintiff concerns the disputes of the year 2008, Naftogaz's press service told Interfax-Ukraine.

"The amount is seven times less than in the claim filed by RosUkrEnergo to make Naftogaz pay $1.4 billion," the press enter said.

At the same time, the source said that there was no information about the disputes of the year 2009.

As was reported earlier, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is considering disputes between Naftogaz and RosUkrEnergo, which were merged into one case on August 28, 2009.

As Naftogaz reported in November 2009, an arbitration decision under a claim lodged by RosUkrEnergo in April 2008 is expected in the second quarter of 2010.

Naftogaz first reported a dispute with RosUkrEnergo late in March 2009. According to the then first deputy chairman of Naftogaz's board, Ihor Didenko, the Swiss company filed claims for charging Naftogaz fines worth $600 million, $55 million and $20 million. Naftogaz in turn filed counter claims against RosUkrEnergo for $62 million and $118 million.

At that moment, according to the Ukrainian side, RosUkrEnergo had not turned to the Stockholm Arbitration Institute to determine if Naftogaz lawfully took over early in 2009 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas previously owned by the Swiss company. Later, mass media reported that RosUkrEnergo raised the amount of its claim against Naftogaz to $8.26 billion because of the unlawfully dispossessed, according to the Swiss company, 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Centragas, which has a 50% stake in RosUkrEnergo and which is controlled by Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash, also announced that it has lodged a claim with an international court against Ukraine to restore the legal ownership of the 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The company says it is acting in accordance with the Energy Charter.

Both Naftogaz and the government of former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, which left office on March 11, 2010, believed that Centragas' claims against the Ukrainian government were incorrect, as neither the Cabinet of Ministers nor Naftogaz had agreements with that company.

The overall amount of claims against Naftogaz, according to its estimates as of November 5, 2009, was UAH 10 billion in Ukrainian courts and UAH 28 billion ($3.5 billion) in foreign courts.