SHELL TO SUE VENTURE GLOBAL FOR BREACH OF LNG CONTRACTS

Britain's Shell and BP, Portugal's Galp and Spain's Repsol are seeking arbitration over a two-year lack of contracted LNG supplies from U.S. firm Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass plant, Shell CEO Wael Sawan said. It was not clear whether the claims were individual or a class action.

According to Reuters, these companies have lost billions due to the lack of LNG, which should have been supplied under long-term contracts. Venture Global uses the excuse that its plant is not ready for use and has not been put into operation, that is, the long-term supply contracts have not yet started operating. At the same time, shipments from Calcasieu Pass LNG have continued since 2022, but these are timely deliveries and not urgent.

Earlier, U.S. regulators sided with Venture Global after a complaint from European companies, saying there had been no violations and that the company was taking all steps to fix problems with gas processing equipment at the plant.

European companies, on the other hand, requested all documentation related to the project, which is said to be in trouble. They had information that Venture Global LNG, during a period of high prices, simply did not want to honor long-term contracts and released the entire volume of LNG produced on the spot market.

Now the question of who is right in the scandalous dispute (especially relevant since 2022, when European buyers began looking to the United States for a substitute for Russian pipeline gas supplies) will be decided not by contracts, but by the court.