KIEV, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - The Stockholm Arbitration Court has accepted Ukraine's lawsuit on an interim ruling on the Naftogaz-Gazprom dispute, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced Wednesday.
"The Stockholm arbitration court has accepted our additional claim concerning a temporary ruling on the dispute between Naftogaz and Gazprom," Yatsenyuk announced.
Earlier in October, the prime minister said that Kiev could ask the Stockholm arbitration court to issue a temporary ruling on the price and terms of Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine pending a final verdict on Ukraine's lawsuit.
In June, Russian energy giant Gazprom was forced to introduce a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine due to Kiev's massive debt, which is currently estimated at $5.3 billion. Following the move, Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz filed a lawsuit with the Stockholm arbitration court requesting a review of its gas contract with Gazprom. Naftogaz is seeking to reduce the price for natural gas and to recover some $6 billion from Gazprom it claims to have overpaid since 2010. Gazprom, in turn, filed a lawsuit with Stockholm arbitration court over the Ukrainian company's debt.
Following the Russia-Ukraine-EU gas talks held on October 21 in Brussels, Ukraine's Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan stated that Ukraine was ready to submit a draft of a legally binding document defining a temporary "winter plan" for gas, and insisted that Gazprom and Naftogaz sign the document with a fixed price of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. The Russian side has expressed concern that the signing of such a document between Gazprom and Naftogaz could affect the decision of the Stockholm arbitration court.
