Kyiv's circuit administrative court has cancelled an instruction by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who obliged the energy minister and the chairman of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy's board to include in Naftogaz's assets the 11 billion cubic meters of taken from Swiss-based gas trader RosUkrEnergo (RUE) AG.
The Public Prosecutor General’s office reported this on its website.
"The claim filed by Public Prosecutor General’s office to recognize illegal and cancel former premier Yulia Tymoshenko’s Jan. 21, 2010 instruction has been satisfied," reads the report.
As was reported, the claim was filed at Kyiv’s circuit administrative court on Sept. 10, 2010,
The Public Prosecutor General’s office also lodged a claim at Kyiv’s economic court to invalidate Jan. 20, 2009, agreements between Naftogaz and Russia’s OAO Gazprom on the sale and purchase of 11 billion cubic meters.
It was reported earlier that Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom signed the agreement on assignment of $1.7 billion in RUE debt in January 2009 under a directive approved by then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Until Jan. 19, 2009 the disputed 11 billion cubic meters of gas was in underground storage in Ukraine. RUE acquired the gas from Gazprom under contracts concluded in 2004-2007. RUE’s debt to Gazprom for the gas totaled $1.7 billion.
Under the January contracts, Gazprom ceded the creditor rights for the RUE debt to Naftogaz, for which the Ukrainian concern paid $1.7 billion it had received from Gazprom as payment for future gas transit services.
Naftogaz subsequently seized the 11 billion cubic meters in payment for RUE’s debt.
RUE sued in the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal, which issued a ruling that Naftogaz must return the 11 billion cubic meters and pay contractual penalties in commodity form, which is 1.1 billion cubic meters.
Switzerland-registered RUE, founded in September 2004 on a 50-50 basis by Gazprom and Centragas Holding AG, a company controlled by Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash (90%) and Ivan Fursin (10%). RUE was the monopoly supplier of Russian gas to Ukraine in 2006-2008.
