They did not try under the conditions of sanctions: Novatek was ordered to pay in France

Novatek could have handled transshipment to the EU under the conditions of sanctions, but did not try to solve the problem. This conclusion was made by the French court and obliged Novatek to pay more than 20 million euros to Elengy Hub & Expertise under the LNG transshipment agreement at one of the French terminals.

In April 2025, a ban on transshipment of Russian LNG for export to other countries came into force in the EU, but the Paris Court of Economic Disputes did not recognize this situation as force majeure and obliged the Singapore company Novatek to pay the French energy company Elengy Hub & Expertise more than 20.2 million euros of debt with interest under the LNG transshipment agreement. This is reported by Kommersant with reference to the court decision.

In 2015, Elengy S.A. and Swiss NOVATEK Gas & Power GmbH agreed on LNG transshipment. Later, the rights and obligations were transferred to Elengy Hub & Expertise and Singapore-based NOVATEK Gas & Power Asia Pte. Ltd. The contract assumed that Novatek was assigned 33 slots per year for LNG transshipment at the French Elengy terminals without intermediate storage. The minimum payment was set at about 1.5 million euros.

And in April 2025, when the EU restrictions came into force, Novatek referred to force majeure and stopped paying. Elengy did not agree with this interpretation of the situation and filed a lawsuit in The Paris Court of Economic Disputes.

The judges, in turn, decided that European sanctions are not an absolute ban, as they allow transshipment for supplies to countries EU with the permission of the competent authorities. The Paris court believes that the Singapore company has not proved any attempts to obtain a transshipment permit, nor the fundamental impossibility of obtaining it. The judges also noted that the company stopped requesting slots back in July 2024 and reduced from 20 operations in 2022 to 6 in 2024.

The court was also guided by the fact that Yamal LNG continues to supply liquefied natural gas to Europe.