MOSCOW, February 4 - RAPSI.A US federal court has refused to hear a $130,000 claim filed by Gazprom subsidiary Encatto Ltd. unless its gas giant parent company agrees to participate in the hearing.

The Belize-registered Encatto Ltd., which is controlled by Gazprom Invest Vostok, a 100% Gazprom subsidiary, filed a lawsuit in 2012 seeking a refund for money that it paid to the Californian Obscura Digital Inc. to produce a commercial film.

According to the statement of claim, Gazprom hired the British Apogee Ventures in 2011 to prepare a presentation to take place in September 2011 in Russia. The company discussed its plans to show a panorama film during the presentation.

Apogee referred to Obscura Digital Inc. to produce the project.

The Californian company presented a cost estimate amounting to $40,000 for 10 days of shooting by a two-person crew. Considering the tight schedule, Apogee asked Obscura to begin shooting the film immediately.

The parties agreed on the price to shoot the film, but they failed to agree on the post-production costs during that stage. Obscura eventually requested $30,000 for shooting the film and nearly $2 million to process the material. Apogee made a counteroffer of $600,000, having excluded all of the services that it found to be unnecessary. Obscura dismissed the proposal and stopped working on the project.

As a result, and due to Encatto's complaints about the shooting and the processing quality, the company filed a lawsuit against Obscura.