Amsterdam court freezes shares of South Stream – Naftogaz executive officer

Amsterdam court freezes shares of South Stream – Naftogaz executive officer KYIV. Oct 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Amsterdam District Court on October 23, 2019 froze 100% shares of South Stream Transport B.V., which is in charge of building and managing the Turkish Stream, Executive Officer of Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko has said. 

"This was done in connection with the investigation of Gazprom's fraudulent actions in the transfer of these shares to Transgaz Krasnodar LLC one day before the bailiffs began to freeze Gazprom's assets in the Netherlands in the Naftogaz lawsuit," he wrote on his Facebook page. As reported, the Stockholm arbitration at the end of February 2018, following the results of two arbitration disputes between Naftogaz and Gazprom for the supply and transit of gas, obliged the Russian company to pay $2.56 billion to Naftogaz. Naftogaz is trying to claim the debt at international courts and to have Gazprom's funds in Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg frozen. 

Naftogaz has already had Gazprom's 51% stake in Nord Stream AG frozen in the UK and its 50% plus one share in Blue Stream Pipeline Company BV (the operator of the Blue Stream pipeline) frozen in the Netherlands. Additionally, Gazprom receivables totaling about $2.5 billion were seized in the Netherlands. Naftogaz Ukrainy expects to complete the process to recover $3 billion from Russia's Gazprom at the end of 2020. "My forecast: by the end of 2020, we will recover the entire amount, that is, about $3 billion [$2.6 billion plus interest]. We will begin recovery in the middle of 2020 and finish by the end of 2020," Vitrenko then said.

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