Orlen may owe $290 million as Gazprom scores partial gas price dispute win

WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish oil and gas company Orlen could face a bill of almost $300 million after an arbitration tribunal ruled that Russia's Gazprom had the right to retroactively charge higher prices for gas supplies to Poland, it said on Wednesday.

Orlen, which took over Polish gas monopoly PGNiG in 2022, is in several disputes with Gazprom in an arbitration tribunal in Stockholm over prices Poland paid for Russian gas from 2017 to 2022.

Gazprom is fighting numerous legal cases, with combined claims of at least 17 billion euros ($20.05 billion) from European companies, according to Reuters calculations.

The July 1 arbitration ruling raises gas prices under the contract between PGNiG and Gazprom between 2018 and the next potential change of price from the years 2020 and 2021, which Orlen estimates could cost it $290 million, the company said.

The ruling did not specify the terms of settlement between the companies and did not award any compensation for Gazprom, leaving it up to the companies to agree terms of settlement, Orlen said, adding that it cannot make any payments to Gazprom under existing regulations. "Orlen operates in accordance with the law and complies with applicable sanctions, which currently prevent it from making any payments under the judgment," the company said.

In the next stage, the tribunal will rule on both sides' claims over prices in 2021 and 2022, as well as claims resulting from Gazprom's halt of supplies to Poland in 2022, the Polish company said.

($1 = 0.8477 euros)

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki)