RusEnergy

05.05.2005 12:28 MSK MosNews - Independent natural gas producer Nortgaz has filed a lawsuit against Russia's Finance Ministry seeking over 119 billion rubles (over $4.3 billion) in damages over the loss of a license for a West Siberian gas deposit. The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted the press service of the Moscow Court of Arbitration as saying that Nortgaz had lodged its application to take legal action against the Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation. Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Federal Agency for the Use of Subsurface Resources are also involved in the case as third parties. "The lawsuit reached the court on April 26. At the moment it is not known whether this lawsuit has been accepted for hearing," a spokesman for the court's press service said. Nortgaz has confirmed that a statement of claim had been submitted, explaining that the company estimates the cost of developing and lost future profits from the Severo-Urengoyskoye deposit in West Siberia at the stated amount. "This sum includes the cost of developing the Severo-Urengoyskoye deposit and also future earnings which the company could have made if Moscow's Arbitration Court had not withdrawn Nortgaz's license to develop this deposit. The license had been due to run until 2018," RIA-Novosti quoted a Nortgaz spokesman as saying. The Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday evening it had not yet received a copy of the statement of claim. However, the Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed that it had received the documents. On April 15 this year the Moscow Arbitration Court upheld a claim by Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom and requested the Natural Resources Ministry to cancel the license of natural gas producer Nortgaz to develop the Severo-Urengoyskoye deposit. The license to develop the Severo-Urengoy deposit was awarded to Gazprom's daughter company Urengoygazprom in 1994, and was later divided into two licenses, one of which went to Urengoygazprom, and the other was given to Nortgaz. Gazprom argued that the license was registered illegally, as there was no auction when the license was awarded to Nortgaz. Nortgaz argued that the statute of limitations on the issue had already expired and that Gazprom had no grounds to appeal to the court, as Urengoygazprom is a beneficiary in the case.