A general view of Moscow Oil Refinery. Moscow Arbitration overruled Friday the claim brought in by majority holders of the refinery to collect $309 million from the US Joy Lud International Distributors (JLID) for the petroleum supplied to the latter but not paid by it in whole.
Photo:
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
The Stakeholders of Moscow Oil Refinery Were Denied
On Friday the Arbitrage Court of Moscow denied to the stakeholders of the Moscow Oil Refinery Plant the claim that the American company Joy Lud International Distributors (JLID) paid $309 million for the supplied, but not, according to the plaintiffs, paid in full for the oil byproducts. During the hearings it was discovered the JLID overpaid for the oil byproduct $27 million. This gave additional grounds to the company and its stockholder Timur Sapir for a new court process in Stockholm.
As Kommersant found out the company of Timur Sapir is also preparing the charges against plants in London and Vienna. The total sum of the new claims to Moscow Oil Refinery Plant will be more than $200 million.
The shareholders of MOR, that include Sibneft, Moscow Oil and Gas Company (MOGC), Central Heating Company and the Phoenix Company, asked Moscow Arbitrage Court about canceling the deal consequences on the agreement that was made between the oil refinery and JLID in 1995. Because of that, they demanded from JLID to return to MOR the cost of supplied oil products in the amount of $176.9 million about $132 million of fines.
However, as Kommersant learned from the lawyer Larisa Ryabchenko, who represents the interests of JLID, the deal was recognized as legal by three different arbitrage organizations during the investigation after the prosecution’s request. The court session on Friday found out that JLID overpaid $27 million to MOR. “That gives us grounds to file a new claim in Stockholm,” Ryabchenko explained. Let’s remind the complaints of the company and its stakeholder Timur Sapir to MOR for unfulfilled contract in the amount of $28 million was recently confirmed by the court of Stockholm (see Kommersant story from June 17). According to Ryapbchenko, the documents for the claim about returning the overpaid money will be sent to Sweden today. The representative of MOR, Nikolai Frolov, told Kommersant that currently the lawyers fo the plant and its shareholders are examining the legal decisions of the Moscow and Stockholm courts. According to him, it is not clear if MOR will contest these decisions.
However, Sapir does not intend to stop on that. According to Ryabchenko in the fall of this year the company Fiber Technologies International (FTI), which is registered in the Cayman Islands and affiliated with Sapir, will file another claim against MOR in London. In 1995, FTI made an agreement with the plant about designing and building industrial complex for the polypropylene goods. The work had to be financed for the JLID money after its sales of the oil byproducts. However, the breaking of the contract for the fuel stopped the building of the complex. FTI intends to file a claim for $155 million to the MOR for the failed complex building.
Sapir wants to file another claim against MOR, this time in Vienna, and from another company of his Global Refining Technology LTD (GRT). Ryabchenko told Kommersant that the owner of the Austrian country Tetracit Alfred Mayer in 2000 made an agreement with MOR about building a railroad terminal and torch equipment for their plant. To fulfill the agreement, Tetracit took a credit and bought equipment. However, the plant refused to pay for the job. And in September 2001 Alfred Meyer committed suicide. Tetracit went bankrupt and Timur Sapir bought its debt. According to Ryabchenko the amount of claim from GRT against MOR is more than $20 million. Representatives of MOR and its shareholders refused to make any comments about Sapir’s claims against the plant. Kommersant will monitor further development of the events.
Anna Skornyankova
All the Article in Russian as of June 27, 2005
|
|
|
