Ukraine's Naftogaz to pay 41 employees $46 million in bonuses for the victory over Gazprom
41 employees of Naftogaz will receive big bonuses for Naftogaz’s victory in a dispute with Gazprom. The decision was approved by Naftogaz’s supervisory board.
The press service of the Ukrainian company said that the total amount of the bonus payment is $46.3 million, of which $9 million well be spent on income tax and other fees. This is 1% of the amount that Gazprom must pay to Naftogaz of Ukraine in accordance with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Institute that settled the gas transit contract dispute between Naftogaz and Gazprom.
Naftogaz assured that top-managers are not the only ones who will receive bonuses. The exact amount of the award assigned to each of them will depend on “the personal contribution of each employee."
Speaking about the complexity of the task for which the bonuses were awarded, the Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolyev said that at the beginning of the dispute with Gazprom, winning seemed impossible.
"The text of the agreement, which was signed in 2009, was drawn up so that it was excessively unfavorable to us. But working on this case for almost four years, we used every clue and won. If not for Naftogaz's victory in Stockholm regarding two contracts, Gazprom could have demanded repayment of a debt worth more than half of Ukraine's GDP. I am grateful to our team because everyone worked selflessly and effectively," Kobolyev said.
The first part of the bonuses worth $20.7 million will be paid as early as May 2018. The remainder is expected to be paid within three years “as the rest of the money is successfully recovered from Gazprom," the Ukrainian company said.
On February 28, the Stockholm Arbitration Institute ruled on the contract for the transit of gas through Ukraine and partially satisfied the claims of Naftogaz of Ukraine, obliging Gazprom to pay the Ukrainian company $4.63 billion for failing to supply certain amounts of gas under a transit agreement. The same arbitration court had ruled on the dispute over the gas supply contract earlier, ordering Naftogaz of Ukraine to pay $2 billion to the Russian company. In the latest ruling, Gazprom had to pay Naftogaz about $ 2.6 billion.
On May 28 it became known that Gazprom appealed to the Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden with a demand to completely cancel the Stockholm Arbitration Institute’s decision.
On May 30, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the initiation of a mandatory recovery from Gazprom of $2.6 billion.