Russ Oil-Gas

October 10, 2007 - Bloomberg News by Karin Matussek –  Moncrief Oil International, a privately held Fort Worth gas and oil company, sued OAO Gazprom, claiming that it has rights to develop a Russian gas field. Moncrief Oil filed the lawsuit at the Regional Court of Berlin, the company said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. BASF AG and E.ON AG also have stakes in the disputed field, called Yuzhno Russkoye, Moncrief Oil said. The U.S. company claims that it has prior rights to the field. The suit is one of at least three Moncrief Oil has filed over the field, in which BASF's Wintershall unit holds a 35 percent stake and E.ON may acquire a 25 percent interest. Two suits have been dismissed. Yuzhno Russkoye has more than 600 billion cubic meters of gas, which would secure 15 years of deliveries to Germany, Gazprom and BASF said in April 2006. A Gazprom spokesman, who declined to be identified, said by telephone that Moncrief was only negotiating with Gazprom and never had any legal rights to the field. BASF spokeswoman Ingrid Nienaber said the company wouldn't comment on the suit. E.ON didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Moncrief's Oil's German unit is suing Gazprom for a 40 percent share in the venture plus damages. The claim is worth about $12 billion to $14 billion, Klaus Nieding, Moncrief's German attorney, said Tuesday in an interview. Moncrief Oil claims that Gazprom broke a contract between the two companies when it signed a memorandum of understanding with BASF in Hannover, Germany. This venue gives German courts jurisdiction over the case, Moncrief Oil claims. "We have no illusions that Russian courts would be unbiased in this case," Chairman Richard Moncrief said in the statement. "Russia's and Gazprom's economic interests are way too much touched by this litigation."