Gazprom withdraws money from Ukraine
PJSC Gaztransit, partly owned by the Russian monopoly Gazprom will pay its shareholders 209 million hryvnia, equivalent to 7.9 million USD, in dividends. This was reported by the company in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Gaztransit shareholders made the decision at a meeting on April 28.
On April 11, 2017, the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine or AMCU filed a statement with the State Executive Service about the initiation of the enforcement proceedings for the forcible collection from Gazprom of a fine of 172 billion hryvnia or 6.5 billion USD.
The head of the AMCU, Yuriy Terentyev pointed out that Gazprom is a co-founder of Gaztransit, which owns a building in Kyiv, as well as other assets. The AMCU requests that the property and assets of Gazprom be seized and their alienation prohibited.
It was previously reported that on January 22, 2016, the AMCU fined Gazprom 85.96 billion hryvnia (3.3 billion USD) for abusing a monopoly position in the gas transit market. On April 12, 2016, Gazprom filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv Economic Court asking it to invalidate this decision of the AMCU, but the claim was never accepted by the court for consideration.
Gazprom tried to appeal the ruling of the Kyiv Economic Court on refusing its claim without consideration but the higher courts confirmed the legality of this decision.
The AMCU filed a claim with the Kyiv Economic Court for the forcible collection of a fine and interest in the amount equivalent to a fine on October 5, 2016.
On December 9, 2016, the Ministry of Energy of Russia expressed concern about the decision of the Kyiv Economic Court to recover a fine from Gazprom and stated that the fines cause risks to the reliability and stability of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. The Ministry then urged Ukraine to cancel this decision.
Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Ihor Nasalyk believes that the withdrawal of transit gas in the framework of a possible fulfillment of the decision of the Economic Court of Kyiv to recover the fine imposed by the AMCU on Gazprom is impossible.
Nasalyk also confirmed that Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had guaranteed to the European Commission that the transit of gas would not be arrested by a court decision. The decision on the obligation to pay the fine and interest entered into force on February 22.
On April 21, the AMCU announced that it had submitted a claim to the Executive Service for forcible collection.