Business
Arkona - Legal Challenge to Validity of SC Licence
Arkona - Legal Challenge to Validity of SC Licence.
About this update from Enwell Energy Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n 4 November 2022\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Enwell Energy plc\n \n (\"Enwell\" or the \"Company\")\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Arkona - Legal Challenge to Validity of SC Licence\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Enwell Energy plc (AIM: ENW), the AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration and production group, provides an update regarding further Ukrainian legal proceedings in respect of its\n Svystunivsko-Chervonolutskyi exploration licence (the \"Licence\") in Ukraine, which is held by\n LLC Arkona Gas-Energy\n (\"Arkona\"), which was acquired by Enwell in March 2020 (see announcement dated 24 March 2020)\n .\n \n \n \n \n \n Since the Company completed the acquisition of Arkona, there have been a number of legal challenges relating to the Licence.\n As announced on 3 July 2020\n , P\n JSC Ukrnafta (\"Ukrnafta\"), as claimant, brought legal proceedings against Arkona, as defendant, in which Ukrnafta made claims asserting that irregular procedures were followed in the grant of the Licence to Arkona in May 2017.\n Ukrnafta also brought these proceedings against the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine (\"SGS\"). Both\n Arkona and SGS disputed these claims. In these proceedings, the First Instance Court in Ukraine made a ruling in favour of Ukrnafta, determining that the grant of the Licence was irregular, and accordingly, the Licence would be invalid. Arkona filed an appeal of this decision in the Appellate Administrative Court in Kyiv, and on 29 September 2020, the Appellate Administrative Court ruled in favour of Arkona, overturning the earlier decision of the First Instance Court. Ukrnafta filed a further appeal in the Supreme Court in Kyiv, and in February 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the arguments raised by Ukrnafta in the appeal were not substantiated, and that the proceedings against Arkona should be dismissed. The decision of the Supreme Court represented the final appeal procedure in respect of these legal proceedings, and accordingly, these proceedings against Arkona were exhausted.\n \n \n \n \n \n Prior to the Company's acquisition of Arkona, Ukrnafta had previously issued legal proceedings in 2018, raising substantially the same claims, which proceeded through the First Instance Court and Appellate Administrative Court, before a final appeal was determined by the Supreme Court in O...