Shell is pressing a New York court to examine whether communications between Venture Global and the independent engineer responsible for monitoring construction at the Calcasieu Pass LNG plant were properly disclosed during arbitration, according to a draft transcript of a January 12 hearing filed with the court.
The dispute follows an arbitration panel ruling last year in favour of Venture Global in a case tied to cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass facility. Shell has sought to overturn that decision, alleging that testimony from a third party - the independent engineer - indicated Venture Global had unexpectedly delayed the plant's commercial start and had referenced communications with Shell in relation to the project.
During the hearing, Shell asked the court to determine whether any 2022 emails, draft reports or commentary exchanged between Venture Global and the independent engineer existed and whether those materials had been withheld from the arbitration record, the transcript shows.
A representative for Venture Global identified the independent engineer named in the exchange as Lummus, the transcript says. Lummus has not been previously identified publicly as Venture Global's independent engineer overseeing Calcasieu Pass. Lummus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Shell and Venture Global both declined to comment.
Justice Joel Cohen, who is presiding over the matter in New York Supreme Court, acknowledged during the hearing that communications between Venture Global and the independent engineer might exist, but he expressed doubt that any single document could undercut a multi-faceted arbitration award that rested on many other materials.
"Why would it be reasonable to think that that kind of communication between a consultant and the respondent would wipe away all of these independent and alternative grounds for them coming at the way they did," the judge said during the hearing, according to the transcript.
Shell has argued the communications are material because the arbitration panel relied heavily on testimony from the independent engineer when reaching its decision in favour of Venture Global. The oil company contends that discovery of communications would show that Venture Global had provided misleading statements and that critical evidence was not produced to arbitrators.
Venture Global has pushed back, saying its counsel did not make misleading statements. At the January 12 hearing, the LNG producer also set out the scale of the arbitration: it said the process lasted 27 months, involved roughly 130,000 pages of documents and resulted in more than $41 million in fees and costs for the parties. Venture Global said the arbitrators declined Shell's requests for the discovery at issue on three separate occasions and that it had produced all documents asked for during the arbitration.
The judge has not yet issued a ruling in the court challenge. The legal fight occurs against the backdrop of Shell's broader allegation that Venture Global failed to deliver LNG under long-term contracts while selling cargoes on the spot market amid soaring prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, claims Venture Global rejects. The LNG firm says the Calcasieu Pass plant's move to commercial operations was delayed because of a faulty electric system that prevented optimal operation, and it denies the accusations that it improperly sold contracted volumes on the spot market.
This court proceeding turns on the existence and relevance of communications between a project monitor and the project owner, the integrity of document production in arbitration, and whether such materials could alter a complex award based on extensive documentary and testimonial records.