MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI) – The companies owned by billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky initiated proceedings against Ukraine over gas supplies at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce seeking payment on debt worth about $5 billion, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

He said his companies had filed two lawsuits, one at the London court of arbitration over infringements on the rights of Ukrnafta minority shareholders, and the other in Stockholm over debts for gas supplies to Ukraine.

Kolomoisky has confirmed that the lawsuit filed in Stockholm was to collect $5 billion dollars in debt from Ukraine.

According to media reports in mid-July, the Ukrnafta minority shareholders affiliated with Kolomoisky’s Privat Group have filed a lawsuit in London over the alleged violation of the shareholder agreement by Naftogaz. More precisely, they demand compensation for gas delivered to Naftogaz in 2006-2011.

Ukrnafta is a state owned company and Ukraine’s largest oil and gas producer and the operator of the country’s biggest network of filling stations. In 2011, it produced 2.27 million metric tons of oil and gas condensate and 2.15 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Ukrnafta produces 68 percent of Ukraine’s oil and gas condensate and 11 percent of its natural gas.

A 50 percent plus one share stake in the company belongs to Naftogaz, the leading state-owned oil and gas company and one of the biggest companies in Ukraine. Over 90 percent of the oil and gas in Ukraine is produced by Naftogaz enterprises.

Igor Kolomoisky, former governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Region and the second or third richest man in Ukraine, owns 42 percent of Ukrnafta shares.