Ukraine prepares multimillion dollar lawsuit against Russia’s oil conglomerate Rosneft
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine intends to seek from the Russian owners of Lysychansk Oil Refinery almost 1 billion hryvnia ($36.9 million) in compensation as part of the lawsuit by Agrocomplex, which Ukraine lost in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as announced by the head of the department, Pavlo Petrenko, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
"Next week, in the Ukrainian, court there will be a major lawsuit brought by Ukraine against the Russian –owned company to recover almost 1 billion hryvnia ($37 million USD)," he said.
Petrenko recalled that this lawsuit concerns events in the mid-90s - early 2000s, when a large number of facilities, including an oil refinery, was taken away through the judicial system after which the company suffered damages for more than 10 years as it was disputed in the ECHR.
"We have been preparing evidence for a year, and we are coming with regress to the company that now owns part of those facilities. It turns out that this company is managed by Russians," Petrenko said.
The Minister did not specify which company will be sued, but in an interview published on November 20th, in Delovaya Stolitsa, he indicated Rosneft was the defendant.
"If the new owners received property that, according to the decision of the ECHR, was illegally taken away from the injured company, and our state paid compensation to Agrocomplex, Rosneft must now refund this money to Ukraine," Petrenko said.
At the end of 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine agreed to the acquisition by Glusco Energy SA (Switzerland) of more than 50% of the shares of Rosneft Management Company Ltd and Fargrade Ltd (Cyprus), as property of which PJSC Linik was registered (LysychanskRefinery, Luhansk region) and a chain of gas stations of the Rosneft company in Ukraine.
According to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, at the end of the third quarter this year, Rosneft Management Company Limited was still as the owner of Linik.
ECHR recognized Agrocomplex as the injured party in the 2011 lawsuit regarding debts against the Lysychansk oil refinery, and two years later ordered to pay Agrocomplex 27 million euros in compensation, which were transferred during a two-year period as allowed by the court.
In a written decision of the ECHR it was noted that Agrocomplex had conducted barter transactions with Russian companies in exchange for Ukrainian raw food products. Russian crude oil was provided for the further sale of finished petroleum products. The case concerned the bankruptcy process during the 1996-2004 period, as initiated by the applicant against the largest oil refinery in Ukraine in an attempt to restore overdue debts.