Polish state-run oil and gas company PGNiG said at the end of last month that Russia’s Gazprom would have to pay it back that sum following a decision by an arbitration court in Stockholm.
The ruling came in a case over a pricing dispute that began in November 2014.
Janusz Kowalski, a Polish deputy minister for state assets, said in an interview with Gazeta Polska Codziennie daily: "The case of Ukraine’s Naftogaz, which won USD 2.6 billion [in a commercial dispute] with Gazprom, showed that by carrying out a tough recovery procedure it is possible to obtain money” awarded by a court.
He added: “The Ukrainians, after a ruling in their favour, began to seize assets of the Russian group in Europe. This path proved effective. That’s why we will also go down this road.”
A Swedish court in November rejected an appeal by Gazprom in the Russian gas giant’s long-running commercial dispute with Ukraine’s Naftogaz over a transit deal, according to Poland’s energetyka24.com website.
Sweden’s Svea District Court of Appeal upheld an earlier verdict by an arbitration court in Stockholm forcing Gazprom to pay the Ukrainian state-owned energy firm USD 2.56 billion amid a gas transit dispute, energetyka24.com reported.
Poland’s PGNiG in November last year told Russia’s Gazprom it would not renew a long-term deal on gas imports when the contract expires at the end of 2022.
(pk/gs)
Source: PAP/ Gazeta Polska Codziennie