Arbitration Court’s ruling on PGNiG’s dispute with Gazprom to be issued in February or March 2020

The Arbitration Court in Stockholm has closed evidentiary proceedings and has formally set the date for its ruling on the case brought by PGNiG against Gazprom in relation to the terms of gas supplies and the procedure for changing the gas price under the Yamal contract.

“The Court will no longer accept any new documents or pleadings. PGNiG has submitted all the information and complied with all the requirements of the Arbitration Court that were necessary to rule on the case,” explained Piotr Woźniak, President of the PGNiG S.A. Management Board.

On December 13th the Arbitration Court in Stockholm has issued a decision whereby it informed the parties that the evidentiary proceedings have been completed and that it plans to issue the final ruling in February or March of the next year. The specific date will be announced by the Court at the beginning of February 2020.

The dispute between PGNiG and Gazprom concerns the price calculation procedure for gas supplied under the Yamal contract. Because of the price formula currently in force, the price paid by PGNiG is much above the market rate. For this reason, in 2014 PGNiG has used the price renegotiation option provided for in the contract. After the negotiation period expired in May 2015, the Polish company submitted the dispute for resolution by the Arbitration Court in Stockholm, and did not effectively bring claims against Gazprom until February 2016.

In June 2018, the Arbitration Court issued a partial ruling where it declared that the conditions for PGNiG to be entitled to demand that Gazprom changes the price calculation method have been satisfied. “Based on the Court’s partial ruling and the course of the evidentiary proceedings, we can assume that the final ruling will be favourable to PGNiG. Now we just need to wait easily for two or three months,” said Piotr Woźniak.

PGNiG