Page 47 - UKRRptJuly18

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
A Swedish Court of Appeal has paused an earlier ruling by Stockholm Arbitrage ordering Russia’s Gazprom to pay Ukraine’s Naftogaz $2.6bn compensation for the duration of an appeal brought by Gazprom, Vedomosti and Kommersant daily reported on June 14 citing both Gazprom and Naftogaz. The decision is temporary and depends on the success of Gazprom's appeal, but it blocks Naftogaz's attempts to seize Gazprom's assets in the Netherlands and Switzerland based on original Arbitrage Court decision in its favour. The development will be a major relief for Gazprom's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Swiss assets of which were already reportedly inspected by bailiffs. The appeal could take up to a year, which gives the Russian energy giant time to complete the construction of the pipeline which is due to go online in 2019. All the states along its route have given permission for construction except Denmark, the last remaining the country not to issue a construction permit . Lawyers surveyed by Vedomosti believe that Naftogaz could appeal the latest decision to grant building permission in the Supreme Court of Sweden, but see such development as highly unlikely. The bitter conflict between Naftogaz and the Russian gas monopolist erupted after a ruling by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce that ruled Gazprom must pay to Kyiv a total of $2.6bn for gas deliveries and transit fees. Gazprom refused to resume deliveries of gas to Ukraine on March 1, or pay the $2.6bn to Naftogaz. At the end of May the Ukrainian company appealed to Swiss courts seeking to enforce the recovery of $2.6bn debt from Russia's giant Gazprom.
Ukraine is talking to Germany, Europe’s largest gas consumer, about joining an international management consortium to run Ukraine’s Gas Transportation System , President Poroshenko says on his YouTube channel. By involving Germany in managing Ukraine’s massive east-west pipeline, Ukraine hopes to have a powerful advocate to maintain gas flows from Russia. Poroshenko says Ukraine earns $3bn in gas transmission fees, the equivalent of the entire defence budget. Concorde Capital’s Alexander Paraschiy writes: “The construction of Nord Steam-2 indeed adds risks that Ukraine’s gas transit system connecting Russia and EU countries will become virtually obsolete by the early 2020s. The risk is also aggravated by the fact that the current gas transit contract between the Ukrainian and Russian gas monopolies concludes in late 2019.
Houston-based SigmaBleyzer private equity firm wants to invest $100mn in exploring and producing oil and gas in Ukraine , the State Geology Service reports after a meeting Monday in Kyiv between Oleg Kirilyuk, head of the agency, and Michael Bleyzer, president and founding partner of the firm. With $1bn reportedly invested in Ukraine over the last 24 years, Bleyzer said his company’s strategy in energy will be to explore large green field sites and to produce under production sharing agreements. Kirilyuk listed the pro-producer rule changes that adopted in the last year and promised: “Today, we can offer you up to 50 promising oil and gas fields on the shelf and land.”
47 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com