Ukraine intends to challenge arbitration court ruling on return of 11 bcm to RosUkrEnergo

Photo: Reuters

Ukraine intends to challenge the court's ruling, according to which Ukraine returned 11 billion cubic meters of gas to the Swiss gas trader RosUkrEnergo, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan has said.

"The prosecutor's office is examining this issue," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

"The prosecutor's office is in charge of this matter, we are getting ready too... We are currently working on which way to go," the minister said.

Prodan did not specify the possible timeframe for filing an appeal, but noted that they still needed a month to prepare the case material.

The minister expressed his concerns about the possible liquidation of RosUkrEnergo.

It was reported earlier that the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce obliged Naftogaz Ukrainy on June 8, 2010 to return RosUkrEnergo 11 billion cubic meters of gas and also pay it a penalty of 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas, as stipulated by the contract. Naftogaz, in turn, returned 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo after buying the necessary amount from Russia's Gazprom at $230 per 1,000 cubic meters.

RUE was founded on a 50-50 basis by Gazprom and Centragas Holding AG in the summer of 2004. It was the monopoly supplier of natural gas to Ukraine in 2006-2008.

Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash owns 90% of Centragas Holding AG and Ivan Fursin has 10%.