Europe has demanded more than $20 billion from Gazprom for undelivered gas. This was reported by [komersannt] with reference to The Moscow Times.
Gazprom’s decision to cut off gas supplies to European countries as a form of pressure on Ukraine in the war with Russia has led to lawsuits from 19 companies from 11 countries.
German concern Uniper filed the largest lawsuit for €13 billion. The company, which purchased 20 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia per year, demanded compensation for multibillion-dollar losses from the cessation of Russian supplies. In June 2024, the Stockholm Arbitration Court upheld its claim in full. The total amount of claims against Gazprom exceeded its net revenue from gas sales to all foreign markets combined: $10 billion a year from supplies to Europe and Turkey, $7 billion from supplies to China, and $2 billion from exports to the CIS and Central Asia, according to BCS estimates.
This may lead to the arrest of Gazprom’s payments in Europe, as companies demanding compensation may try to intercept the remaining gas payments.
The media notes that the multibillion-dollar claims exceed Gazprom’s profits from gas supplies to foreign markets. Such claims could pose significant financial risks to the Russian gas company.
Last week, one of Gazprom’s last major customers in the European Union announced that it would stop buying Russian gas. Austrian company Wien Energy GmbH, one of Gazprom’s last major customers in the European Union, announced its decision to stop buying gas from Russia and instead increase gas imports from North Africa, the North Sea and contract LNG consumers.
The announcement was made in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Now Wien Energy also intends to demand certificates of non-Russian origin from its new suppliers. It is worth noting that Austria remained the last country in Western Europe to continue buying gas from Russia, although Gazprom’s market share in the country dropped to 83% in May 2024, from 97-98% in the winter of the same year. This includes supplies to more than 2 million gas consumers in Vienna and its environs.