THE RUSSIAN gas giant Gazprom, which holds a monopoly in export of Russian natural gas, will, according to news reports, try to reach an out-of-court settlement with Slovakia’s gas utility SPP on compensation for damages caused by last year’s gas crisis when gas was halted due to a dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
The Interfax newswire had written about SPP’s attempts to get compensation for losses caused by the gas stoppage via the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, the SITA newswire reported.
SPP turned to this private court first and it is not known if there are other court suits. The actual sum that SPP is demanding is also unknown, but given the average price of gas during that period, analysts estimated it could be around $100 million. Slovakia calculated an amount of compensation in March last year but the figure was not made public.
Following reports of a motion that was submitted to the Court of Arbitration, Gazprom confirmed that it is currently negotiating with SPP but it would not disclose any details.
