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(Bloomberg) — Uniper SE was awarded more than €13 billion ($14 billion) in damages for Russian gas volumes not supplied by Gazprom PJSC since mid-2022.
Uniper was one of Gazprom’s oldest European trading partners with a history dating back to the 1970s. An international arbitration ruling on June 7 allowed the German company to terminate its long-term Russian supply contracts, some of which ran until the middle of the next decade, according to a statement Wednesday.
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Uniper was nationalized during Europe’s energy crisis, in one of the largest corporate bailouts in German history. After Russia stopped supplying gas through the Nord Stream pipeline and fuel prices soared, the German utility was forced to pay in the hundreds of millions of euros every day for alternative supplies and was only able to pay these costs with state support.
Although Gazprom may never fulfill the payout, ending the supply contracts is a key milestone to prepare Uniper for its return to the stock market.
“Any amounts would flow to the German federal government,” Michael Lewis, chief executive officer of Uniper said, referring to the damages. “It is not yet clear whether significant amounts are to be expected.”
Uniper only got limited gas volumes from Russia since June 2022, and has received none since the end of August 2022. Uniper sued Gazprom the same year.
Gazprom didn’t immediately comment to a request for comment. The tribunal which issued the ruling is seated in Stockholm, and ruled in accordance with Swiss law.
European gas prices rose on possible ramifications for supplies of Russian flows elsewhere in Europe.
Separately, Austrian energy company OMV AG warned last month that flows from Russia could be disrupted if its payments to Gazprom are interrupted by a European court decision. Gazprom provides most of Austria’s gas under a long-term contract.
OMV wasn’t immediately available to comment.
—With assistance from Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Anna Shiryaevskaya.
(Updates with additional details throughout.)
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