Tribunal allows Uniper to terminate dormant Gazprom contracts
Also awards Uniper with 13 billion euro damage title
Terminated contracts remove major risk for planned reIPO

FRANKFURT, June 12 Reuters German utility Uniper has won a multibillion euro arbitration against former longtime supplier Gazprom, it said on Wednesday, allowing it to tear up dormant gas supply contracts and potentially setting a precedent for similar cases.

The ruling marks a landmark victory for Uniper, which had to be rescued by the German government in 2022 after Gazprom first cut and later suspended supplies, forcing the group to buy replacement volumes at skyhigh prices on the spot market.

It also severs the last remaining ties of what was a decadelong energy partnership between Berlin and Moscow, which came to an abrupt halt in the wake of Russia39;s attack on Ukraine in 2022.

Uniper said the ruling by the arbitration tribunal in Stockholm on June 7, part of a process the company launched in late 2022, enabled it to terminate existing gas supply contracts, which legally still exist even though no gas is flowing.

The tribunal also awarded the firm more than 13 billion euros 14 billion in damages for the gas volumes not supplied by Gazprom since mid2022, when the Russian stateowned group first cut contractually agreed deliveries.

Sources told Reuters last month that the arbitration tribunal could allow Uniper to terminate the 250 terawatt hours in dormant Russian gas contracts, some of…