Spanish Gas Co. And Egypt Settle $2B Award Suit - LAW360

March 16, 2021, 10:03 PM EDT

Diamond Naga Siu 

A Spanish gas company has agreed to drop its $2 billion award confirmation suit against Egypt in D.C. federal court after the parties inked a settlement ending their years' long dispute over Egypt cutting off a natural gas plant's supply.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes issued Unión Fenosa Gas SA the award against the Arab Republic of Egypt after finding that the state-owned gas company breached a contract by cutting off UFG's gas supply to its liquefied natural gas plant in Damietta.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg on Tuesday accepted UFG and Egypt's Monday joint stipulation of dismissal, which said each party would handle its own attorney fees and costs. The settlement was agreed upon in early December.

"We and our client are very pleased that, after nearly eight years of arbitration in which UFG obtained notable results, the parties were able to reach a settlement that resolves all remaining disputes and allows UFG to recover damages for the breaches that precipitated the dispute," James E. Berger of King & Spalding LLP, counsel for UFG, told Law360 in an email Tuesday.

Gas ‘breakthrough’ could see movement in months - CYPRUS MAIL

March 14, 2021

Elias Hazou

After nine years, an agreement was reached this week to move forward gas sharing between Israel and Cyprus as a field straddles the borders. But how long will it take to get off the ground?

Following nine years of stop-start talks, the understanding reached earlier this week between Cyprus and Israel over developing the Aphrodite gas field was hailed as a ‘breakthrough’. Given so much time has elapsed, the standard political pageantry surrounding the news was perhaps understandably greeted with a fair amount of skepticism. But analysts do gauge the development as positive, and one that removes an unnecessary thorn in relations between the two countries.

The Aphrodite-Yishai field is a cross-border natural gas reservoir, but the two governments have been unable to reach an agreement on the fine print of its commercial exploitation.

The Aphrodite field holds an estimated 4.1 trillion cubic feet of gas. At stake was about 10 per cent of the deposit.