PSO wins arbitration, awarded $14.6 million

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has won an arbitration case against global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trader Gunvor Group Limited for receiving excess payments for natural gas shipments. The London Court of International Arbitration gave a verdict in favour of PSO which had reduced payments to Gunvor due to overcharged shipments. PSO was awarded $14.6 million, as well as other costs as per the contract on October 8, 2022, for the case initiated by Gunvor in January 2021. According to details, PSO continued making excess payments to Gunvor on account of port charges for four and half years. Later, it was pointed out by the Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) management that Gunvor was receiving excess payments from the state-owned oil company. Subsequently, a legal opinion was sought from an international firm that had assisted the Pakistani firms in finalising the LNG supplies agreement with Gunvor. Promptly after the availability of the final port charges, PLL notified Gunvor on November 9, 2018, of its concerns regarding the calculations applied by the international commodity trading company in the provisional invoices.