The owner of the Polish section of the Yamal gas pipeline, Europol Gaz, is pursuing a claim of about 6 billion zlotys ($1.45 billion) against Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM), Poland's State Assets Minister said late on Thursday.
Last year Poland terminated its agreement with Russia to receive Russian gas via the Yamal pipeline after Warsaw rejected a demand to pay for the fuel in roubles and Moscow responded by cutting off supplies.
"Europol Gaz ... filed an arbitration lawsuit against Gazprom for the return of approximately 850 million zlotys of receivables - overdue payments for gas transmission," Jacek Sasin told public broadcaster TVP Info.
"Moreover, this lawsuit, this arbitration request, also concerns Europol Gaz lost profits. It is an amount of over 5 billion zlotys. This is what was estimated ... for the period up until 2045, when Russians committed to transmit gas through Polish territory."
Europol Gaz specified it was seeking claims of approximately 285 million dollars with interest for gas transmission over 2006-2009, compensation for lost revenue from gas transmission services in 2022 and for to the lack of gas transmission through Polish territory from 2023 to 2045.
The arbitration proceedings will be conducted by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, it said.
Gazprom did not reply to a request for comment.
($1 = 4.1422 zlotys)
