The legal battle between Vienna and Moscow continues to intensify. According to recent entries in the Russian court register, the Commercial Court for Northwest Russia has upheld a first-instance ruling from October 2025. This ruling prohibits OMV from continuing arbitration proceedings against Gazprom Export before the renowned SCC Skiljedomsinstitut in Stockholm.
The amount in dispute is €32 million
This specific case was triggered by a lawsuit filed by the subsidiary OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH in Stockholm in May 2025. In it, the Austrian company is demanding €32 million from Gazprom Export. The background to this is disagreements over gas supply contracts, for which, according to the historical contracts, the Swedish arbitration court would actually be responsible.
However, Gazprom countered in Russia with the argument that EU sanctions would make a fair defense in Sweden impossible. The court in St. Petersburg followed this line of argument and imposed a penalty: if OMV continues the proceedings in Stockholm despite the ban, it must pay Gazprom a penalty equal to the amount of the claim – i.e., exactly €32 million.
Strategy of “illegitimate” proceedings
OMV is unimpressed by the ruling, but considers the Russian court decisions to be contrary to international law. In a statement, the company said that it considered the proceedings in St. Petersburg to be “illegitimate and without legal basis” and would continue to exhaust all available legal remedies.
An already fractured relationship
This is not the first case of its kind. In 2024, there was a similar dispute over a claim amounting to €575 million. The conflict reached a preliminary climax in November 2024 when OMV was awarded €230 million in damages in another arbitration proceeding (ICC) for delivery stoppages in Germany. OMV then began to offset this amount against payment obligations to Gazprom, whereupon Russia largely suspended gas deliveries to Austria.
Remaining assets in Russia at risk?
While experts emphasize that Russian judgments are hardly enforceable outside Russia, the risk to OMV’s local assets remains. OMV still formally holds a 24.99% stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in Western Siberia. However, this stake was already placed under de facto Russian state administration at the end of 2023 by a decree issued by Vladimir Putin, which forced OMV to make massive write-downs. The company is currently not commenting on whether the impending penalty payments can be realized by accessing remaining accounts or residual values in Russia.