Dana Gas Wins Kurdistan Arbitration Ruling
Sharjah based Dana Gas led consortium has won a $1.98 billion long-term contract arbitration ruling against Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
The company on Sunday said the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) on the Friday 27th of November 2015 ordered KRG to pay to the companies within 28 days the sum of $1.98 billion for outstanding unpaid invoices for the produced condensate and LPG up to 30th June 2015, as per the pricing methodology already determined previously by the Tribunal.
Dana Gas along with Crescent Petroleum and Pearl Petroleum Company Limited filed the international arbitration case against the KRG in October 2013.
“This award is final, binding and internationally enforceable, and does not depend upon any further hearings or claims and counter-claims by the parties to the arbitration,” Dana Gas said in a statement.
However, in a press note released Sunday, the Kurdish regional government said Dana’s statement “is materially misleading and incomplete.”
“Significantly this is a partial award that does not finally determine all issues in the arbitration, and leaves many issues unresolved. The arbitral tribunal has neither heard nor decided the KRG’s counterclaims, which, as the tribunal noted, have been partially and provisionally quantified by the KRG’s experts at more than $3 billion,” the KRG press note said. “The quantum of the KRG’s counterclaims is, therefore, almost double the amount of the payment claims that are the subject of the partial award and, if upheld, would eclipse those claims and result in the Claimants owing significant amounts to the KRG.”
The KRG’s counterclaims will be heard in the next phase of the arbitration, the note stated.
The consortium of Dana Gas, Crescent Petroleum and Pearl Petroleum Company has rights to develop oil and natural gas from the Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields for 25 years. These rights had previously been disputed by the KRG since May 2009.