Vanco may demand US 200 bln dollars of compensation from Ukraine

If the agreement with Vanco company is broken through the fault of Ukraine, and if it is proved in international courts, the company may demand around US 200 bln dollars of compensation from the country.

      According to an UNIAN correspondent, Deputy President’s Chief of staff Oleksander Shlapak claimed this to a press conference today.

      “There are different ways to calculating the losses. We will for sure have to remunerate direct losses, already spent by the investor… it is approximately 200 millions of dollars”, O.Shlapak stressed.

      He added that Vanco may claim remuneration of under-received profit. In this case, the amount of compensation may grow up to US 200 billions of dollars, he said.

      O.Shlapak did not rule out that the Vanco case may shortly be considered in the Stockholm court, and “we have a little chance to win”. He expressed a hope that the government will consider this issue at its session on Wednesday.

      O.Shlapak pointed out that the President asked to return to “zero positions” on the Vanco issue, and not to jeopardize Ukraine.

      As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2006 Vanco International Ltd. Won the first open contest and signed an agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2007 on the exploration of the Black Sea Shelf.

      Yulia Tymoshenko’s government pulled Vanco’s license to explore a vast 12,900km field off the Crimean peninsula, citing concern that Gazprom could, through partners, gain a hidden interest in the project that was originally intended to diversify energy supplies by boosting domestic production. Ms Tymoshenko also suggested past governments might have compromised Kyiv’s “national interests” by yielding such a large field and unjustifiable proceeds to a single group.