MOSCOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow arbitration court declined Tuesday to recover $309 million from the U.S. company Joy Lud in favor of the Moscow Oil Refinery.
The court waived the appeal filed by the Moscow Oil and Gas Company, oil major Sibneft, and the Fenix company, which are the Moscow refinery's shareholders.
In January 1995 the Moscow refinery and Joy Lud signed a 10-year contract on petroleum product deliveries. At the same time, the Russian government allocated the refinery a quota on oil product sales to use their proceeds to build a polypropylene facility.
The U.S. company purchased petroleum products under this quota. But in 1999, the Moscow refinery ended petroleum product deliveries, having built only production premises and utility lines. In 2003, Joy Lud applied to the Stockholm arbitration court, which ordered that $28 million in lost profit be recovered from the Moscow refinery.
At the same time, the refinery's shareholders applied to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a demand to be paid back $176.9 million for petroleum products supplied, and $132 million in penalties, saying that the refinery's general director had signed the contract without their consent.
However, Joy Lud lawyers said the Moscow Arbitration Court had proved the legality of the contract in another case. They also provided payment documents indicating money transfers for petroleum products supplied.
