The fact that Russia no longer supplies gas to Germany is a major concern for Uniper. The cost of procuring replacement gas has so far amounted to 11.6 billion euros for the group. Now Gazprom is said to be paying for the “considerable financial damage.” And that’s not all.
The struggling energy group Uniper is trying to hold the Russian Gazprom group responsible for the lack of gas deliveries. Uniper has applied for arbitration proceedings against Gazprom Export before an international arbitral tribunal, as the group announced in Düsseldorf.
Uniper also announced that it would divest its Russian unit Unipro. Their sale had been planned for a year and a half. According to Uniper, a buyer has also been found, but the approval of the Russian supervisory authorities is still pending – and the outcome of this process is uncertain. Uniper therefore now wants to separate itself from the subsidiary legally and in terms of personnel “as far as possible”.
Uniper will demand reimbursement of the “considerable financial damage,” said CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach in Düsseldorf in relation to the arbitration proceedings. So far, Uniper’s costs for procurement of replacement gas have amounted to 11.6 billion euros.
The Düsseldorf group got into difficulties because of the Russian gas supply stop, as gas prices have multiplied. The company has to buy the missing gas from Russia at high prices on the gas market in order to fulfill its own supply contracts at even more favorable conditions, which leads to liquidity problems. That is why the group, the German government and Uniper’s previous majority shareholder Fortum from Finland agreed in September to nationalize Uniper. The federal government should then own around 98.5 percent of the shares in Uniper.
