April 23 (SeeNews) - A Zurich arbitration court has ordered the natural gas suppliers of Bosnia's Federation entity, Energoinvest [SAJ:ENISR] and BH-Gas, to pay a total of $11.16 million (10.4 million euro) to Hungarian gas transmission system operator FGSZ over a change in the route for the delivery of Russian gas, Radio Free Europe reported.
Despite its contract with FGSZ that was valid until 2023, as of 1 April 2021 the Federation changed the gas supply route to Gazprom's TurkStream pipeline, thereby excluding the Hungarian company from the business of transporting gas to the Federation via the old route via Ukraine, Hungary, and Serbia, Radio Free Europe reported on Monday.
The TurkStream carries Russian gas to Bosnia through Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia.
In September 2021, FGZS launched a claim against Energoinvest, BH-Gas, and the Federation entity, demanding over $21 million in compensation.
In September 2022, Energoinvest filed a counterclaim with the Zurich arbitration court, alleging that FGSZ had overcharged BH-Gas for gas transportation services from January 2019 to March 2021, resulting in damages of $9.96 million, Radio Free Europe reported earlier.
The Federation is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
($ = 0.936 euro)