Gazprom threatened Naftogaz with sanctions

The actions of the Ukrainian Naftogaz, which initiated legal proceedings regarding the transit of Russian gas to Europe, may lead to Russian sanctions being imposed against the company . This is stated in the statement of Gazprom, published in the TELEGRAM channel of the company.

Gazprom noted that they consider the filing of Naftogaz's appeal with the International Arbitration COURT (IAC) as an unfriendly step and "a continuation of dishonest behavior."

“Further attempts by Naftogaz of Ukraine to seek consideration of the dispute in the IAC may lead to the fact that the Russian state authorities will have every reason to impose a sanctions regime on Naftogaz of Ukraine and include persons in the sanctions list,” the company warned.

In practice, this will mean a ban on Gazprom from fulfilling its obligations to sanctioned persons under completed transactions, including a ban on financial transactions, the Russian company noted.

Naftogaz launched a new arbitration against Gazprom in early September. He demands from the Russian company to pay money for the service of organizing the transit of fuel through Ukraine. Naftogaz believes that Gazprom did not pay for the services on time and in full.

The filing of the lawsuit was preceded by the termination by Ukraine of the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the Sohranivka gas distribution station in the Luhansk region. The gas transmission network operator of Ukraine (OGTS) announced the suspension of transit in May, explaining the decision by “force majeure circumstances”: the station was not controlled by Ukrainian forces. In this regard, the OGTS proposed to redirect the power from Sokhranovka to the Sudzha station.

Gazprom, in turn, stated that they had not received confirmation of force majeure circumstances and did not see any obstacles to the continued operation of the Sokhranovka station in the usual mode. The Russian company considered it impossible to transfer transit to Sudzha due to the peculiarities of the Russian streaming scheme. As a result, in May, Gazprom reduced gas transit through Ukraine by a quarter, to 72 million cubic meters. m against 95.2 million cubic meters. m.

Gazprom believes that Naftogaz "refused to fulfill its transit obligations" through Sokhranivka. As stated in the company, according to the agreement on the transit of Russian gas from December 2019, “non-fulfillment of the obligation by [Naftogaz] means the absence of payment even in the event of a statement by Naftogaz of Ukraine about force majeure on the territory of Ukraine.” In addition, Gazprom noted that the consideration of the claim in Sweden and Switzerland deprives the company of the right to a “fair and impartial trial,” since “due to the huge number of anti-Russian sanctions imposed,” these countries have become unfriendly to Moscow.

Ukraine is one of the two remaining routes for Russian gas supplies to Europe after the shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.