The Stockholm Arbitration Court overruled a number of claims by Italia Ukraina Gas S.p.a. (IUGAS) on Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy and upheld only a small part of the penalty claims to the Ukrainian company, President of the international consulting company Grant Thornton Ukraina Oleksandr Chaly said.
“The Thursday reports saying that Naftogaz lost a court dispute [to the tune of] $3.9 billion in Stockholm arbitration are totally untrustworthy. The material completely distorts the content of the Stockholm Arbitration Court ruling in the IUGAS suit against Naftogaz,” Chaly told Interfax-Ukraine.
The court did not oblige Naftogaz Ukrainy to supply Italia Ukraina Gas with 13.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas at $110 per thousand cubic meters, he said.
The court merely ruled that the Ukrainian company had to pay fines to IUGAS in the amount of roughly $12.7 million, and other insignificant amounts, thought the plaintiff was seeking several dozens of times more money, Chaly said.
“In no case is the issue about amounts in billions. Stockholm arbitration set aside all outstanding IUGAS demands of Naftogaz,” he said.
The report in the material that in 2010 Naftogaz had lost the first IUGAS proceedings to the tune of $200 million under an October 19, 2010 Stockholm tribunal ruling is likewise dubious, Chaly said.
He said he thinks that the earlier release of questionable information about the arbitration court ruling does significant harm to Naftogaz Ukrainy’s business reputation, and expressed confidence that after a close review the report will be refuted by the publishers that put it out.
The paper Kommersant-Ukraine reported on Thursday that the Stockholm arbitration court had ordered Naftogaz to fulfill a signed December 24, 2003 contract with IUGAS and supply it with 13.1 bcm of gas at 2003 prices. The paper cited a copy of the court ruling of December 19, 2012 it had obtained.
Later, Naftogaz Ukrainy denied the report that the court had ordered the company to pay just $12.7 million. At the end of the day, Kommersant-Ukraine confirmed that the report it had published was incorrect.
