Naftogaz wants to go to internation arbitration as Russia does not fully pay for gas transit through Ukraine

Russia has not fully paid for the reserved capacity for the transit of natural gas through Ukraine, said Yuri Vitrenko Chairman of the Board of the NJSC "Naftogaz of Ukraine on the air of CNBC International.

According to Vitrenko, Russia justifies the incomplete payment by saying that Sokhranivka is not available for transit. However, it is the Russian occupiers who are to blame for Ukraine's lack of access to this point. In addition, Ukraine offered Gazprom to transfer all its capacities from Sokhranivka to Sudzhu interstate gas interconnection points, but Gazprom ignored this proposal.

We have a "ship-or-pay" contract, and if they don't, we will go to international arbitration. Moreover, it seems that we will turn to arbitration, because they now pay less than stipulated in the contract. They say they do not use this entry point (Sokhranivka), but we have offered an alternative," Vitrenko said.

According to him, there is a procedure for resolving disputes between companies and initially Naftogaz will try to resolve the issue in a pre-trial procedure, but if Gazprom does not agree, Naftogaz will turn to international arbitration.

"This will open a Pandora's box, as we can claim more than $ 12 billion in unearned revenues, which we have decided not to claim through a settlement agreement with Miller in 2019," Vitrenko said.