Russian court bans Ukraine's Naftogaz from int'l arbitration against Gazprom
MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A Russian court banned on Friday Ukraine's energy company Naftogaz from continuing an international arbitration against Kremlin-owned energy giant Gazprom, according to the court's website.
The court documents showed that Gazprom last month asked the St Petersburg and Leningrad region's arbitration court to stop proceedings in a "foreign" arbitration.
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The ruling on the court's website reads "to fully satisfy the claim".
Naftogaz started arbitration proceedings - one of many in recent years - against Gazprom in September 2022 with the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris over payments related to Russian gas transit via Ukraine.
The Ukrainian company was not immediately available for comment.
Naftogaz claimed at the time that the funds were not paid by Gazprom, "neither on time nor in full". Gazprom, in its turn, accused Ukraine of failing to stick to the transit deal.
The current deal on Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine expires in the end of the year.
Russia continues gas exports through Ukraine to Europe despite the military conflict, which started in February 2022 when Russian President Putin declared a "special military operation" in the neighbouring country.
However, the transit has plummeted due to the political fallout from the conflict.
According to Reuters' calculations, natural gas supplies to Europe by Gazprom fell further, by 55.6% to 28.3 billion cubic metres (bcm), in 2023. At their peak in 2018-2019, annual flows reached 175-180 bcm. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Louise Heavens)