Venture Global has accused Shell of trying to damage its business by waging a “campaign” against it over the past three years, the Financial Times has reported, citing an internal message that Venture Global’s owners sent out to staff.
“[Shell’s] action relies on completely baseless claims and is an unfortunate continuation of their three-year campaign to damage Venture Global. This behaviour should be very concerning to Shell’s employees, board of directors and shareholders,” Michael Sabel and Robert Pender, who co-founded Venture Global, wrote to employees in their Thanksgiving message.
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.
Now, Shell is appealing the first court’s decision on the arbitration case, taking it to the New York Supreme Court earlier this month. The supermajor has alleged that Venture Global had withheld information from Shell and the arbitration court hearing their original case.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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