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Shell Accuses Venture Global of Wrongfully Earning $3.5 Billion

Shell has alleged that LNG producer Venture Global had wrongfully earned $3.5 billion from selling cargos from long-term contracts on the spot market instead.

According to a Financial Times report, Shell had commissioned a study "to assess how much more revenue Venture Global wrongfully earned by denying certain European customers their contracted cargoes".

Shell did not stop there, however. It went on to allege that Venture Global had caused serious LNG sourcing difficulties for one company that had to resort to sourcing the gas from five other U.S. producer, incurring additional costs of $1.5 billion, the FT report also said. The report identified Poland's state energy company Orlen as the one most exposed to Venture Global's tactics.

The supermajor is one of several companies suing Venture Global for failing to deliver cargos contracted under long-term agreements and instead selling the gas on the spot market, using a loophole that allows it to trade on the spot market before its facility is officially finalized. Venture Global has been seeking to extend the construction period for its Calcasieu Pass LNG plant.

Once the Calcasieu Pass facility is officially recognized as completed and fully operational, Venture Global would need to start servicing its long-term contracts with Shell, BP, and Spain's Repsol.

The three supermajors, along with two other European energy companies, were foundation buyers for the Calcasieu Pass facility, meaning they provided Venture Global with the money to build the place in Louisiana in exchange for a commitment from the company to supply them with certain volumes of LNG over a long-term period.

The facility has a capacity of 10 million tons, and it started producing in early 2022-right on time for Europe, which was beginning to experience a shortage. But instead of honoring its contracts with the European buyers, Venture Global chose to sell more LNG on the spot market.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More

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