The Moscow Forporst partnership with Samotlorneftegaz did not work out
The Moscow company Forpost filed claims in court against the Nizhnevartovsk structure of Rosneft, Samotlorneftegaz JSC, with which the partnership did not work out. The subject of the arbitration proceedings was the financial settlements of the parties. The first instance decided to recover more than 50 million rubles from Samotlorneftegaz. The appeal will now consider both companies’ complaints against the decision. The confrontation began over used pipelines.
Samotlorneftegaz sold a large volume of pipelines to the capital organization, which were taken out of service. Since they were underground, Forpost had to dismantle and pay for the intangible assets. Several tens of millions of rubles went to the accounts of oil workers, but during the work the power lines were damaged. Samotlorneftegaz stated that Forpost unauthorizedly dismantled the pipeline, which resulted in soil contamination in the area of the Samotlor field. Due to this, the money in the accounts was frozen.
Forpost tried to return to fulfillment of the contract, claiming that all the defects had been eliminated, but was unable to do so. After which he went to court with claims against his partner. The company demanded 50 million rubles as an advance payment for untransferred goods, interest on the use of money, 173 million rubles in losses incurred due to illegal downtime, and lost profits of 96 million rubles. The losses included wages to employees during downtime, rental of vehicles and leasing agreements for several Toyota Camrys, which allegedly served construction crews on the territory of Samotlorneftegaz.
However, the court satisfied the requirements for prepayment. Only the parties calculated the volume of inventory items that the plaintiff took out differently. Oil workers said that Forpost removed 6.7 thousand tons of pipes, citing only an additional agreement, and the return of goods was estimated at 6 million rubles. The plaintiff provided invoices for the release of more than 2 thousand tons of material. Representatives of Forpost stated that the oil workers simply imposed additional agreements, blackmailing them with the resumption of work. The court found that the partner imposed obviously unfavorable conditions on the partner without objective circumstances and reasons.
The court examined in detail two incidents related to damage to power lines and an emergency with a pipe, which is why all work stopped. Oil workers stated that Forpost dismantled a pipeline that was not specified in the contract, and traces of soil contamination with oil-containing liquid were found within the boundaries of leased industrial lands and forest lands. By the way, Forpost is simultaneously suing another Rosneft asset, Orenburgneft JSC, demanding execution of the concluded agreement. The dispute concerns the same used pipes.