Naftogaz Expects Next Gas Agreement With Gazprom to Last Until Mid-2016

KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz hopes that its next agreement with Russia's Gazprom will be in effect until the mid-2016 end of the price-fixing trial in Stockholm, Naftogaz said Thursday.

"It is expected that the next provisional agreement will establish the principles of Russian gas supplies [to Ukraine] until the end of the trial regarding the gas supply contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce," Naftogaz said in a statement released on Thursday.

In June 2014, Gazprom switched Ukraine to a prepayment system for gas supplies over its massive gas debt. Following the move, Naftogaz turned to the Stockholm arbitration court requesting a review of its Gazprom contract with the intention of recovering some $6 billion in alleged over-payments.

At the same time, Gazprom filed a lawsuit in the same court in an attempt to recover almost $5 billion in debt from Naftogaz.

A trial’s oral hearing will be held February-March 2016, a final decision is expected in late June 2016.

In October 2014, Moscow and Kiev signed the "winter package" agreement securing gas supplies to Ukraine until March 2015 and stipulating a $100 discount per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas.

That deal, set to expire on March 31, was extended on Tuesday by the Russian government for three more months, in consideration of Ukraine's failing economy.