Venture Global shares soar after court rejects Shell’s challenge to LNG ruling

Venture Global soared 17% on Tuesday in premarket trading after a New York court denied Shell's request for an arbitration award which favored the U.S. based developer of liquefied natural gas.

The British oil giant had originally filed a complaint regarding Venture Global's alleged improper sales of LNG, but lost the arbitration in August. Shell appealed the decision in November.

Justice Joel Cohen, of the State Supreme Court, said that no further?evidence gathering was necessary and that the court should give "substantial respect" to arbitral decisions.

We believe that the stock price is still depressed because of arbitration overhang. Manav Gupta, an analyst at UBS, said that this news will likely be viewed as a positive.

Venture Global was also sued by other?energy companies, including BP, Italy’s Edison, Spain’s Repsol, and Portugal’s Galp.

Venture Global has been accused by the companies of profiting on the spot LNG market, when prices soared following Russia's invasion in Ukraine. Instead of delivering the cargoes that they had agreed to years before.

Shell and Repsol lost their arbitration claims against the LNG manufacturer, while BP won in October, but is still waiting for a decision on damages.

Venture Global shares jumped up to $13.27 just before the bell rang. They were on track to erase their losses since October 9 when they lost their case against BP. (Reporting and editing by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru, Sumit Saha and Vallari Srivastava from Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)