Russian gas monopolist OJSC Gazprom bought 11 billion cubic meters of gas from the national gas company JSC Naftogaz Ukrainy in early 2009 for a total of $1.7 billion, and then almost immediately sold them back to Naftogaz at the same price, the oppositional Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko reported on Thursday.
A photocopy of delivery and acceptance certificates for the gas supplied to Ukraine’s underground storage facilities dated February 4 and February 6, respectively, have been posted on the Web site of the bloc. The first act has Naftogaz Ukrainy as a seller and Gazprom as a purchaser, in the second act they switched roles.
Besides, the first document states that Gazprom does not require that the gas be removed from the Ukrainian storage facilities.
The BYT also posted a photocopy of a sales contract, which says that Naftogaz Ukrainy bought 11 billion cubic meters from Gazprom, which allowed the gas to receive customs clearance, the lawfulness of which is currently questioned by the claimant in the case against Naftogaz Ukrainy.
Gazprom hasn’t commented yet on these gas agreements with Naftogaz Ukrainy.
It was reported earlier that in a June 8 ruling, the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal ordered Naftogaz to return the 11 bcm of gas to RosUkrEnergo. In addition, the tribunal ordered that RUE would receive from Naftogaz a further 1.1 bcm of gas in lieu of RUE’s entitlement to penalties for breach of contract.
The award followed the earlier decision by the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal on March 30, 2010 to award RUE in the region of $200 million for various breaches by Naftogaz of supply, transit and storage contracts. This earlier ruling also becomes enforceable and will therefore be paid to RUE as part of this further award.
The Ukrainian authorities said they did not have enough natural gas resources to return the gas in question to RosUkrEnergo.
RosUkrEnergo was set up in summer 2004 by Gazprom of Russia and Centragas Holding AG on a parity basis. Centragas Holding AG is owned by Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash (90%) and Ivan Fursin (10%). RosUkrEnergo was the monopoly gas supplier for Ukraine 2006 through 2008.
You can view the document in Russian on Yulia Tymoshenko’s official website.
