Today.Az » Business » Azpetrol filed its request for arbitration against the Government of Azerbaijan
21 July 2006 [08:45] - Today.Az
The Dutch company Azpetrol International Holdings B.V. and its Dutch subsidiaries Azpetrol Group B.V. and Azpetrol Oil Services Group B.V. filed their request for arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty against the Government of Azerbaijan with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington D.C. last week.
The Dutch companies claim that their Azerbaijani subsidiaries have been expropriated by the Azerbaijan Republic, without compensation or due process of law and they additionally refer, in their request, to numerous other serious violations of the Energy Charter Treaty which have been committed against them. The Energy Charter Treaty was established to promote and protect investments in the energy sector in countries located in Eastern Europe and the CIS such as Azerbaijan. The Azpetrol case will be the first of its kind related to Azerbaijan, a country that unlike Russia has fully ratified the Energy Charter treaty. Azerbaijan has attracted billions of dollars of investments to its energy sector over the last ten years, hence the outcome of this case will be closely watched by current and potential investors in Azerbaijan's energy sector.
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