A UK Court decided on Friday that commodities trader Glencore should pay over USD 40 million to Romanian oil and gas company OMV Petrom. The court made this ruling in a case in which the Romanian group accused Glencore of fraudulently shipping lower quality oil to Romania in the 1990s, according to Bloomberg.

Glencore, which was at that time called Marc Rich & Co., made 32 shipments of oil to Romanian state companies from 1993 to 1996. The oil it delivered was of a lower grade than agreed in the contract, and the trader gained some USD 40.1 million from this.

The London court that ruled in this case also found that Glencore employees falsified documents to cover up the fraud. Glencore said it would appeal the tribunal’s ruling.

The Romanian state firms that bought the oil from Glencore in the 90s don’t exist anymore. They were absorbed by oil and gas group Petrom, which the state sold to Austrian group OMV in 2004. This made OMV Petrom the beneficiary of the compensation.

OMV Petrom filed the UK suit against Glencore in 2008 after two failed arbitrations.

Glencore is one of the largest commodities traders in the world. The company based in Baar, Switzerland, has a market capitalization of over EUR 50 billion.

OMV Petrom is the largest group in Romania. Its shares are trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange with the ticker SNP. Petrom’s market capitalization is EUR 6.25 billion.

editor@romania-insider.com