MOSCOW, June 14 - Gazprom has canceled a planned Eurobond offering in pounds sterling set for the middle of June due to the risk of the funds raised being frozen by Naftogaz Ukrayiny, a source with knowledge of the situation told Interfax.

The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has ordered Gazprom to pay Naftogaz $2.6 billion in compensation for a shortfall in gas transit via Ukraine. Gazprom is hoping to contest the ruling in a civil law court. However Naftogaz has already started to try and recover the money in foreign jurisdictions without waiting for an outcome. It has taken several legal steps with a view to freezing subsidiaries of Gazprom and their assets in Switzerland and the Netherlands, and there have been reports of plans to freeze assets in Britain and the United States.