Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 48 2022

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

German Uniper sues Gazprom for €12bn

for failed gas supplies

RUSSIA GERMANY’S energy and utility major Uni- when flows first began to decline.
per sued Russian natural gas giant Gazprom in Gazprom has drastically cut supplies to Nord
Uniper had to be bailed the Stockholm Arbitration Court for violation Stream in June, and the pipeline is now out of
out by the German of a gas supplies contract, claiming that failed action completely, following major leaks that
government after losing gas deliveries had caused €11.6bn of damages occurred at the pipeline in late September
its Russian gas supply. through replacing missing gas on the spot mar- Gazprom originally blamed the slowdown
ket, according to a report by Kommersant daily. and halt in deliveries on Canada’s deliberate
To remind, Gazprom’s gas supplies to coun- blockage of the delivery of a repaired Siemens
tries beyond the former Soviet Union saw a gas turbine for the pipeline.
41.1% decline in the first nine and a half months Uniper, however, could argue that Gazprom
of this year, amid ongoing cuts to customers in only declared force majeure four weeks after
Europe. supplies had been cut in July and did not try to
“Given the massive financial losses being reroute gas via an alternative route, legal experts
incurred on Europe’s energy markets, we expect surveyed by Vedomosti daily believe. Gazprom
many lawsuits to be filed, not just against Gaz- would also have to prove that the pipeline's
prom but against any party that can be perceived technical problems were completely beyond its
as contributing to the crisis or benefiting from it,” control.
BCS Global Markets commented on December Siemens previously pointed out that it saw no
1. technical reason for stopping at least some of the
"Gazprom Export does not acknowledge the operational turbines on the pipeline. Should the
breach of contracts and the legitimacy of Uni- force majeure claims not be accepted, the dam-
per's claimed claims for damages," the Russian ages claimed against Gazprom could exceed the
company said as cited by The Bell. €11.6bn currently being demanded by Uniper,
While Gazprom is seen as the most obvi- BCS GM warns.
ous target for such cases given the halt of Nord Analysts surveyed by Vedomosti believe
Stream 1 gas pipeline flows, BCS GM analysts that such arbitration proceedings of this sort,
believe that the force majeure claim “will almost with complex technical expertise, could last
certainly dominate the proceedings”. anywhere from a year to three years. They also
BCS GM reminds that Gazprom has been remind that Gazprom previously lost a $1.5bn
preparing for such a development, by declaring claim against PGNiG of Poland and a counter-
a force majeure on the halt of Nord Stream flows claim against Naftogaz of Ukraine for $2.56bn
in summer, which it backdated to June 14, 2022 in Stockholm. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 02•December•2022