In the middle of January 2022, Gazprom submitted a notice of arbitration before the ad hoc Arbitral Tribunal in Stockholm demanding a revision of the price terms applicable to the gas delivered under the Yamal contract. Gazprom expects an increase of the contract price retroactively from 2017 and from 2020 based on the contract price revision requests of 8 December 2017 and of 9 November 2020.

‘Following a thorough analysis of the case we confirm our position that the contract price revision request presented in Gazprom’s notice is unfounded and without merit. Moreover, we believe that those claims are formally inadmissible. Thus, our response to the notice of arbitration is clear – we requested to dismiss Gazprom’s claims’, said Paweł Majewski, President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA.

Please note that the said price revision requests of Gazprom were submitted in response to the request by PGNiG for a decrease of the contract price of 1 November 2017 and PGNiG’s request for a decrease of the contract price of 1 November 2020 which was modified by PGNiG on 28 October 2021 in view of record high gas prices in Europe.

Therefore, apart from the request for dismissal of Gazprom’s claims, PGNiG has also submitted counterclaim for a decrease of the contract price based on the above-mentioned requests of the company.

‘We are well prepared to prove our arguments before the Arbitral Tribunal in Stockholm’, declared the President of PGNiG SA.

The commencement of the arbitration proceedings initiated the dispute resolution procedure under the Yamal contract which does not prejudice any amicable settlement thereof should PGNiG and Gazprom reach an adequate understanding.

PGNiG exercised the right of arbitration under the Yamal contract twice, in 2011 and 2015. Following the proceedings initiated in 2015, in March 2020, the Arbitral Tribunal revised the contract price formula granting the request of PGNiG.