By Curtis Williams
HOUSTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – BP BP.L has won its arbitration case against Venture Global VG.N over the U.S. supplier’s failure to deliver liquefied natural gas under a long-term contract that was due to start in late 2022, Venture Global said on Thursday.
The International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration found that Venture Global breached its obligations to declare commercial operations had begun at the Calcasieu Pass plant in a timely manner and act as a “reasonable and prudent operator,” Venture Global said in a regulatory filing.
The BP ruling contrasts with a decision in August that saw Venture Global prevail in a similar complaint from Shell SHEL.L. It was not immediately clear why the two cases resulted in different results. BP is seeking damages of more than $1 billion plus interest, costs and attorneys’ fees.
“The company is disappointed by the arbitration tribunal’s decision in the proceeding with BP, which it believes contradicts the decisive findings in the prior arbitration involving Shell,” Venture Global said in its filing.
Shares of Venture Global were down more than 10% in after-hours trade, shaving off nearly $3.3 billion from the company’s market capitalization.
HEARING TO DETERMINE DAMAGES NEXT YEAR
A separate hearing is expected in 2026 to determine the extent of the damages the U.S. operator will have to pay BP, and the amount may exceed a cap on how much BP and other customers could claim that is contained in the original sales agreement, Venture Global said.
BP said it was pleased with the outcome of this phase of the arbitration and looked forward to the determination of how much it would be paid as a result of Venture Global’s breach of contract.
Venture Global said it was evaluating all available options in response to the tribunal’s ruling and it would continue to vigorously defend its position.
The company also reported on Thursday that it reached a resolution with another Calcasieu Pass customer that had taken it to arbitration, without naming the company.
That settlement has no material impact on Venture Global, it said in the filing.
Other companies, including Edison EDNn.MI and Galp GALP.LS, have also filed claims against Venture Global, accusing it of profiting from the sale of LNG on the spot market after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, rather than shipping previously contracted LNG cargoes to them from the Calcasieu Pass export facility in Louisiana at much lower prices.
Throughout the dispute, Venture Global has argued it was allowed to conduct the spot sales after the start of official commercial operations was delayed by a faulty power island.
The company officially started commercial operations at Calcasieu Pass in April 2025 and has since earned significantly lower prices from selling LNG to BP and other customers at contracted prices.
Venture Global’s average fees collected fell around 70% from the first quarter of the year to the second, after it started honoring the longer-term contracts and stopped the contested spot sales. Over that period, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility that determines gas prices in Europe, where Venture Global sells most of its cargoes, dropped 24%.
(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston, Stephanie Kelly in London and Sumit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Nathan Crooks, Rod Nickel, Jamie Freed and Tom Hogue)
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