Naftogaz Appoints New Legal Advisor

Naftogaz has appointed a lawyer Elena Zerkal as an advisor to its chairman of the board, Andriy Kobolyev, the company reported in a statement on January 29.

Zerkal previously worked at Ukraine’s foreign ministry, where she was responsible for European integration and represented Ukraine in international court cases against Russia. She was also involved in negotiating winter gas supplies from Russia between 2014 and 2016.

Zerkal has also served at the Ukrainian justice ministry and held private sector roles in her 25 years as a lawyer.

She will advise Naftogaz on international relations and lend her expertise to the company’s international legal cases, including one against Russia over Crimean assets – Naftogaz produced about 1bn m³/yr gas offshore – that were seized after the peninsula’s annexation in early 2014. In March last year a Dutch court found that Russia's seizure of the Crimean assets violated a bilateral investment treaty.