Bulgaria is working on a lawsuit in an arbitration court against Gazprom. The application will be ready within a month or two.
Similar Lawsuits against Gazprom for breach of contracts have also been filed by Poland’s PGNiG, Italy’s Eni, Germany’s RWE, Finland’s Gasum, France’s Engie and Ukraine’s Naftogaz.
Along with Poland, Bulgaria is one of the states that refused to switch to ruble payments after the invasion of Ukraine, and suffered fluctuations in supply as a result. The risk of Gazprom being able to turn to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm is slim.
The Bulgarian move comes after The Polish state energy firm Orlen announced it would take legal action over the suspension of oil supplies from Russia to Poland via the Druzhba pipeline earlier this year.
The suspension came just one day after Poland became the first country to donate modern, Western, tanks to Ukraine and just a few days after US President Joe Biden visited Warsaw to mark one year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Poland has ended almost all Russian energy imports since the invasion of Ukraine, but continues to receive about 10% of its oil through the Druzhba pipeline under a previously agreed contract, in force with the Russian company Tatneft until the end of 2024, which can not be broken without EU sanctions.
Tatneft has not publicly commented on why it cut off supplies to Poland, but Poland is taking over Gazprom’s assets in the country. According to an IBRiS poll, 83.6% of Poles do not want Russian oil to be imported into the country, even if this would entail higher fuel prices.
