ST. PETERSBURG, May 22. /TASS/. The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region upheld Gazprom Export's claim against Austria’s OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH banning it from continuing foreign arbitration proceedings, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

The court ruled that the Austrian company will have to pay Gazprom Export if it violates the ban.

"The Arbitration Court of the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region determined: to prohibit the company OMF Gas Marketing and Trading GmbH from continuing arbitration proceedings at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce <...>. In case the company OMF Gas Marketing and Trading GmbH fails to comply with the ruling of the Arbitration Court of the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region <...> an award in favor of Gazprom Export LLC [in the amount of] 575,266,000 euros in rubles at the rate of the Bank of Russia will be paid," the judge said.

Earlier, Gazprom Export demanded that OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH be prohibited from continuing arbitration proceedings at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and that it be fined if it failed to comply with the judicial act.

Gazprom Export's lawyer insisted in court that because of sanctions, the company can not get proper legal representation and justice abroad. In particular, a number of EU law firms refused to work with Russian companies, and an agreement on streamlining the issuance of visas was also canceled. Nevertheless, the OMV representative claimed that no personal sanctions had been imposed against Gazprom Export, and the Austrian company proposed - within the same arbitration court - to transfer the hearings to other jurisdictions (including Dubai or Istanbul), but did not receive any response.

OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH is a subsidiary of Austria’s OMV AG. In June 2018, an agreement was signed to extend the existing contract between Gazprom Export LLC and OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH to supply Russian natural gas to Austria until 2040. Previously, the contract was signed through 2028.

About Gazprom legal disputes

Earlier Gazprom filed claims in the Russian court against German traders Uniper Global Commodities SE and Meta-Methanhandel GmbH, Austria’s OMV Exploration & Production GmbH, Czech company NET4GAS, Naftogaz of Ukraine, the Dutch gas transport Gasunie Transport Service, the operator of the BBL gas pipeline between the UK and the Netherlands, Slovakia’s ZSE Energia and the Polish-Russian company Europol GAZ, which owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, demanding a ban on continuing arbitration proceedings in foreign courts. The Russian company won all its claims to ban the continuation of legal proceedings abroad.

Gazprom Export also filed a similar lawsuit against Czech company CEZ, with a hearing scheduled for May 24.