OREANDA-NEWS. Naftogaz, the national oil and gas company of Ukraine, intends to demand more than 11 billion US dollars from Russian corporation Gazprom in compensation for the possible cessation of transit of gas. It was stated by the Director for Business Development of the Ukrainian company Yuriy Vitrenko. “…On November 1 we will send Gazprom claims of more than 11 billion dollars, which may become compensation for the termination of transit,” he wrote on Facebook.

So the top manager commented on the words of the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller, who said that before the conclusion of a new contract for transit, all litigation should be resolved. According to Miller, this should be the “zero variant” which means the complete cessation and recall of all claims.

At the same time, the Ukrainian media report that the termination of transit is becoming more and more real.

In December 2017 and February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ruled on disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz on contracts for the supply and transit of fuel. In a lawsuit on supply contracts, the court ordered the Ukrainian company to pay more than 2 billion dollars to the Russian corporation. However, the second decision in a lawsuit on transit contracts the arbitration court ruled for the benefit of Naftogaz in the sum of 4.673 billion dollars.

Gazprom appealed against this judgement. The hearing of its complaint started last week in the Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden.

Besides, in July 2018, Naftogaz began a new arbitration, demanding that Gazprom revise the transit tariff in 2018–2019. The company estimated these requirements at 11.58 billion dollars, but, as the head of Naftogaz Andriy Kobolyev stated, it is ready to revise them if a new long-term contract is concluded.

Current contracts for the supply and transit of Russian gas through Ukraine expire at the end of 2019. Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission are discussing the possibility of concluding a new agreement at trilateral meetings, the next is scheduled for October 28.