Ukraine said on Wednesday it would appeal an arbitration court ruling ordering it to transfer natural gas worth billions of dollars to a former trading intermediary owned by Russia's Gazprom and a local tycoon.
Centragas, a joint owner of RosUkrEnergo with Russian gas giant Gazprom said this week state-owned gas holding Naftogaz owed it 12.1 billion cubic metres of gas "expropriated" in 2009, citing an arbitration court ruling.
Ukraine’s government said last year it bought the gas in question from Gazprom for $1.7 billion.
"We will not return (the gas) at consumers’ expense," Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Boiko told reporters.
"We will carefully investigate all opportunities to appeal."
The claims from RosUkrEnergo followed a decision by Ukraine and its supplier Russia to scrap the firm as an intermediary between Gazprom and Naftogaz after a series of rows that briefly halted transit of Russian gas to Europe.
Centragas is 90 percent owned by GDF, a holding company for Ukrainian tycoon Dmytro Firtash.
