Germany's Uniper recoups more claims against Russia's Gazprom

By Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) -Uniper recouped more of its claims against former main gas supplier Gazprom during the first quarter, the German utility said on Tuesday, in the latest update on the two groups' ongoing legal dispute.

The news comes as the European Union is expected to publish plans later in the day to fully phase out what remains of the bloc's gas supply deals with Russia by the end of 2027, according to EU officials.

Uniper has been locked in a bitter legal tussle with Russia's Gazprom, its main supplier of natural gas until deliveries stopped in 2022, forcing Berlin to save the German utility with a 13.5-billion-euro ($15.3 billion) bailout.

Uniper scored a major legal victory last year when an arbitration tribunal awarded the group more than 13 billion euros in damages for the gas volumes not supplied by Gazprom.

In its first-quarter report published on Tuesday, Uniper said quarterly results included "income from enforcement activities conducted against Gazprom Export", which is the Russian firm's export arm.

The utility declined to comment on the size of the income or any other details related to it, only saying that any realised claims would be transferred to the German government as part of the bailout deal.

Uniper has so far repaid 3.1 billion euros in state aid, including 530 million euros of withheld payments to Gazprom.

In turn, a St. Petersburg court last year ruled Gazprom Export could claim more than 14 billion euros from Uniper should it proceed with the arbitration.

Previous decisions by other courts already enabled Uniper to exercise claims against Gazprom's Austrian division, causing that business to file for insolvency in 2023.

Gazprom did not reply to a request for comment.

($1 = 0.8821 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff. Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin. Editing by Friederike Heine and Mark Potter)