(Oil Price)– Shell has challenged an arbitration ruling against it in the long-running dispute with Venture Global over contracted LNG supply, alleging the U.S. LNG exporter withheld information to Shell and the arbitration court.
Shell has challenged the arbitration decision at the New York Supreme Court, the supermajor told Reuters on Tuesday.
Shell has sued Venture Global for selling LNG on the spot market while foregoing long-term supply contracts because of delaying the commissioning phase of its first LNG plant at Calcasieu Pass.
Shell and other major oil and gas firms accused Venture Global in 2023 of profiteering by selling on the higher-price spot market LNG cargoes that should have been supplied under their long-term contracts. The U.S. firm used a loophole to do that by extending the deadline for officially commissioning the Calcasieu Pass export project.
In August, Shell lost the arbitration against Venture Global as the tribunal ruled that the U.S. company had not violated its contractual obligations with its long-term clients.
Venture Global claimed that it was under no obligation to honor its long-term commitments until the plant was officially commissioned, which happened earlier this year. Meanwhile, it managed to build a second LNG facility that produced its first LNG at the end of 2024—before the first one was officially commissioned.
Meanwhile, another European supermajor, TotalEnergies, earlier this year declared it would not do business with Venture Global because of the profiteering affair, with chief executive Patrick Pouyanne saying that “I don’t want to deal with these guys, because of what they are doing. … I don’t want to be in the middle of a dispute with my friends, with Shell and BP.”
Last month, BP won a similar arbitration case it brought against Venture Global.
In its Q3 results and outlook, Venture Global on Monday reduced and tightened the range of its Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $6.35 billion – $6.50 billion from $6.40 billion – $6.80 billion, due to lower expected fixed liquefaction fees and accounting reserves relating to ongoing arbitrations.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
