Moncrief Oil International is demanding that Gazprom either return the right to develop the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field or pay several billion dollars as compensation for lost profits. The German companies Wintershall and Ruhrgas are co-defendants.
A bond memorandum issued by the gas monopoly stated that
Moncrief had filed the lawsuit against Gazprom and its subsidiaries, Zapsibgazprom and Severneftegazprom, on June 7.
A source told Vedomosti that in the second half of the 1990s Moncrief had signed an agreement with Vladimir Nikiforov, then Zapsibgazprom director-general, to set up a joint venture to develop the Yuzhno-Russkoye deposit in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous area. (The deposit is the main source for future supplies along the North-European gas pipeline and its estimated recoverable reserves are 700 billion cubic meters.) Moncrief pledged to invest about $1 billion in the project.
In 1999, a separate company, Severneftegazprom, was established to develop Yuzhno-Russkoye.
But in 2001 it emerged that Severneftegazprom was controlled by structures that had close ties to Itera, while Zapsibgazprom was already controlled by Yukos. These companies said that they did not have any dealings with Moncrief over the gas field.
By the end of 2002, Gazprom had regained 85% of Zapsibgazprom and control over the license to develop Yuzhno-Russkoye. However, it was not until July 2004 that the company management learned of Moncrief's interest in the deposit.
Aton analyst Dmitry Lukashov said that it was because the Germany companies Wintershall and E.ON Ruhrgas were involved in the project that Moncrief was able to sue Gazprom in international courts.
Valery Tutykhin, a partner in the law firm John Tiner & Partners, said that the court would only award compensation if the defendant could prove that Gazprom has caused it to suffer commercial losses.
