The Stockholm Arbitration Court recognized the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the transition to payment for gas in rubles as force majeure under the contract, and ordered the Finnish “Gasum” company to pay “Gazprom Export” a debt of more than €300 million for gas supplies.
“On November 14, 2022, a decision was made following the ad hoc arbitration in Stockholm between Gazprom Export LLC and the Finnish company Gasum Oy. The Arbitration Tribunal, in its decision, among other things, ordered Gasum to pay Gazprom Export a debt of more than €300 million for gas supplies and in connection with the failure to fulfill the ‘take or pay’ obligation, as well as interest for late payment,” Russian company’s Telegram channel reports.
In addition, the Court recognized the publication of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the transition to payment for gas in rubles as a circumstance of force majeure under the contract. Thus, the tribunal confirmed the legality of the suspension of natural gas supplies in case the buyer fails to pay in rubles.
The arbitration also obliged the parties to continue negotiations on the contract to resolve the situation with further gas supplies.
As reminded, on May 18, “Gasum” stated that it did not accept the demand of the Russian side to switch to a new gas payment system in rubles. After that, on May 21, Gazprom confirmed the complete cessation of gas supplies to Finland.
At the end of September, it was reported that Gasum was forced to continue purchasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia under the current contract, because otherwise it would have to make payments due to the “take or pay” condition prescribed in the contract, which would only increase the income of the Russian Federation.
The fact that Russia will switch to paying for gas supplies to unfriendly states in rubles was announced by Russian President on March 23. On March 31, a corresponding decree was signed, after which the buyers had to open ruble accounts from which gas payments would be made.
Ru-Main, 17.11.2022
Source: Izvestia
