Ukraine anti-trust body wants to force Gazprom to pay UAH 86 bln fine
6 October 2016
The Anti-Monopoly Committee (AMC) of Ukraine appealed to the Kyiv Economic Court demanding recovery of a UAH 86 bln penalty (about USD 3.3 bln) imposed against Russia’s Gazprom, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Oct. 5. The AMC ruled in January that Gazprom was abusing its status as the only buyer of natural gas transit services from Ukraine’s Naftogaz, thereby preventing mutually beneficial agreements on gas transit. Gazprom appealed the AMC resolutions in the Kyiv Economic Court in April, and the court did not satisfy its appeal. Two higher courts also ruled in favor of the AMC in May and June.
Alexander Paraschiy: The size of penalty imposed on Gazprom is too high to believe that the AMC will manage to extract it, even after the court ruling in its favor. Gazprom has few assets in Ukraine, so the only way to enforce the full penalty payment is to start confiscating Gazprom’s natural gas from Ukraine’s transit pipeline. Such a step will only intensify the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and will add risk to economic future of Ukraine’s transit pipeline. The 2017 draft state budget does not foresee possible income from such penalties, which means the Cabinet does not believe in the success of AMC’s initiative.
