Venture Global has claimed Shell has no evidence of Venture Global being involved in any wrongdoing, following the supermajor’s submission of an appeal to an earlier court ruling, in which the court sided with the U.S. LNG producer.
In its challenge to the first ruling, Shell referred to a third party that had testified that Venture Global had unexpectedly decided to postpone the commissioning of its second LNG facility, Reuters reported, citing the U.S. company’s statement. The supermajor also alleged that Venture Global had made misleading statements to avoid disclosure of facts pertaining to the case to the arbitrators.
In response, Venture Global said Shell had provided zero evidence of contract violation, denied it had made any misleading statements, and said the third party mentioned by Shell had not testified “to written communications with Venture Global”. The company also accused Shell of breaching arbitration confidentiality when it had shared information about the case with Venture Global counterparties and their legal counsel.
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.
The arbitration case that BP brought against Venture Global, however, ended with a favorable ruling for the supermajor, motivating Shell to challenge the ruling in its case.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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