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Saturday, March 15, 2025

Young: State not served with ConocoPhillips order

by

Gail Alexander
255 days ago
20240703
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young

Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young said yes­ter­day that at this stage, the State has not been served with any or­der of the High Court re­lat­ed to any Cono­coPhillips mat­ter or ar­bi­tral award.

Speak­ing in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day, Young said that on the ba­sis of the nor­mal prin­ci­ples of com­pa­ny law and in­ter­na­tion­al law, there are no risks to the Drag­on Field project as a re­sult of the ar­bi­tra­tion award to CononoPhillips against PDVSA.

Young was re­ply­ing to queries by Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Sen­a­tor Wade Mark, who asked about the Drag­on gas field de­vel­op­ment project. Mark not­ed the May High Court de­ci­sion which recog­nised the 2018 ICC ar­bi­tra­tion award to US-based Cono­coPhillips against Venezue­lan state-owned com­pa­ny Petroleos e Venezuela (PDVSA)

Mark sought the li­cen­sor for the li­cence en­tered in­to by Shell and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny for the Drag­on project, what were the risks to the project as a re­sult of the recog­ni­tion of the ar­bi­tra­tion award to Cono­coPhillips; when did the Min­istry be­come aware of the ap­pli­ca­tion to the Court for the recog­ni­tion of the ar­bi­tra­tion award; and which oth­er gov­ern­ment min­istries, if any, were in­volved in the mat­ter.

In re­sponse, Young said, “The li­cen­sor for the li­cence grant­ed to Shell Venezuela SA and the NGC Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion Com­pa­ny in re­spect of the Drag­on field was the Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple’s Pow­er for Pe­tro­le­um on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela. The li­cence, there­fore, was grant­ed by the Gov­ern­ment of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela.

“At this stage, the State has not been served with any or­der of the High Court re­lat­ed to any Cono­coPhillips mat­ter or ar­bi­tral award. The mat­ter ap­pears to still be sub­ju­dice as well as there were re­cent me­dia re­ports that the High Court Judge amend­ed his orig­i­nal or­der.

“How­ev­er, on the ba­sis of the nor­mal prin­ci­ples of com­pa­ny law and in­ter­na­tion­al law, there are no risks to the Drag­on project as a re­sult of the ar­bi­tra­tion award to Cono­coPhillips against PDVSA.”

Young said the ap­pli­ca­tion to the High Court for the recog­ni­tion of the ar­bi­tra­tion award and the sub­se­quent recog­ni­tion of the ar­bi­tra­tion award was made with­out any no­tice to the State or to any oth­er en­ti­ty as it was an ex parte ap­pli­ca­tion.

“The Min­istry was made aware of this de­vel­op­ment when the mat­ter was re­port­ed by var­i­ous me­dia in­sti­tu­tions. As in­di­cat­ed, the ap­pli­ca­tion to the High Court for the recog­ni­tion of the ar­bi­tra­tion award to Cono­coPhillips and the sub­se­quent or­der of the court was made with­out any no­tice to the State. There­fore, no Gov­ern­ment Min­istries were in­volved in the ap­pli­ca­tion to the High Court.”

On fur­ther queries, Young stressed that an ar­bi­tral award against a com­pa­ny, PDVSA, will not af­fect the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment’s deal­ings with the li­cence for the project which was is­sued to Shell or NGC.


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