Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Ltd v Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd 2024 EWHC 70 Comm - 22 January 2024
Country
Year
2024
Summary
Introduction
1. This is a challenge brought by Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power (Private) Limited ("QATPL") under Section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the "Act") to a final award dated 2 August 2022 (the "Award").
2. The underlying arbitration related to unpaid invoices under a Gas Supply Agreement (the "GSA") entered into by the parties on 22 July 2016.
3. Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited ("SNGPL") is a public limited company incorporated in Pakistan engaged in the business of gas transmission, distribution and sale.
4. QATPL is a private limited company incorporated under the laws of Pakistan. It owns and operates a power plant at Bhikki, near Sheikhupura, Pakistan (the "Complex"). The Complex operates on Re-Gasified Liquefied Natural Gas ("RLNG") as its primary fuel.
5. The grounds of challenge are in summary that:
a. the Tribunal acted in breach of Section 33 of the Act by determining the claim on a basis that SNGPL had not pleaded and/or by determining it in a way that meant that QATPL did not have a reasonable opportunity to respond to SNGPL's case in the way in which that case was finally sought to be advanced; and
b. in breach of Section 68(2)(d) of the Act, the Tribunal failed to rule on a determinative issue that the parties had put before it, namely whether SNGPL's failure to issue invoices within the contractual deadline under the GSA deprived it of the entitlement to claim for sums in the May 2018 Invoice (as defined below).
6. QATPL seeks an order setting aside, or remitting, parts of the Award.