Russian gas giant Gazprom offers Ukraine to forget the past and start from scratch
Russian gas giant Gazprom offered Ukrainian company Naftogaz to use a so-called "zero option" in terms of finances and verdicts of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
"The zero option is the absence of mutual claims from the finance point of view," said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as cited by RIA Novosti. Novak proposed this option at the end of the trilateral negotiations on gas in Brussels.
According to Novak, Russia believes that the relationship between the parties should be settled "on the zero option" and "within the framework of a settlement agreement," considering the long trial and appeal porcess.
According to Novosti, representatives of Naftogaz said that Gazprom offered to agree and not to apply court decisions on future contracts.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian company Naftogaz published a report for the first half of the year. The document reports that Gazprom owes the Ukrainian company as of June 30, 2019, $2.817 billion. This amount includes interest rates.
In December 2017 and February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ruled that Gazprom should pay $2.56 billion to Naftogaz for the supply and transit of gas.
Later, Gazprom demanded the cancellation of the verdict on the transit and filed a counterclaim, requesting to terminate the contracts with Naftogaz that are valid until the end of 2019.