Headlines
Turkey-based Palmali lawsuit against Lukoil's Litasco dismissed by UK court
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
A UK court dismissed Palmali's lawsuit against Lukoil's Litasco, citing a conflict of interest. The initial $2 billion claim was reduced to $120 million.
LONDON (Reuters) -Turkey-based tanker operator Palmali on Friday lost its London lawsuit against the trading arm of Russian oil producer Lukoil over a purported deal to provide oil products.
Palmali, controlled by Azerbaijan-born businessman Mubariz Mansimov, first sued Lukoil's Swiss subsidiary Litasco at the High Court in 2017 and was initially seeking nearly $2 billion.
The value of Palmali's case was substantially reduced, however, after Litasco succeeded in having much of the lawsuit thrown out in 2020.
Palmali was, by the time of the trial earlier this year, seeking just over $120 million for Litasco's alleged breach of its obligations to supply up to 700,000 metric tons of cargoes a month.
But Judge Mark Pelling dismissed Palmali's lawsuit in a written ruling on Friday, saying its contract with Litasco was void because Litasco's then chief executive Valery Golovushkin had "a plain conflict of interest" when the contract was agreed.
The judge also upheld Litasco's counterclaim for the repayment of a loan and payments made to Palmali which were due to be paid on to third parties.
Litasco's lawyer Craig Morrison said the parties had agreed the value of the counterclaim at around $14.8 million, including interest.
Palmali and Litasco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Palmali's lawsuit against Lukoil's trading arm, Litasco, was dismissed by a UK court, with the judge ruling that the contract was void.
Palmali initially sought nearly $2 billion in its lawsuit against Litasco.
By the time of the trial, Palmali was seeking just over $120 million for Litasco's alleged breach of contract.
Judge Mark Pelling stated that Palmali's contract with Litasco was void due to a conflict of interest involving Litasco's then chief executive.
Litasco's counterclaim was valued at around $14.8 million, which included interest.
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