Venture Global accuses Shell of campaign to harm LNG business

(Reuters) -U.S. LNG producer Venture Global accused Shell of waging a "three-year campaign" to damage its business after Shell appealed an arbitration loss, according to a staff note confirmed by Reuters on Wednesday.

Venture Global has faced arbitration claims from Shell, BP and other European buyers alleging contract breaches after the company sold LNG on the spot market during the 2022 energy crisis.

The email from Venture Global's co-founders, Michael Sabel and Robert Pender, criticized as "misguided" a decision by Shell to challenge the unanimous ruling and added that Venture Global would continue to defend itself.

Venture Global and Shell did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The decision should be a concern to Shell's board of directors and its shareholders, the Venture Global co-founders added in their email.

"To be very clear, this action relies on completely baseless claims and is an unfortunate continuation of their three-year campaign to damage Venture Global," the company told employees.

First reported by the Financial Times, the note was confirmed to Reuters by a company source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It also highlighted recent supply deals worth $28 billion with customers in Greece, Japan and Spain, saying the company was on track to become the world’s largest LNG producer.

Shell launched a challenge in New York state court this month to overturn the arbitration ruling.

Separately, Shell was ordered to pay Venture's legal fees following a recent loss in arbitration LNG supply claims.

Both cases centered on Venture Global's failure to deliver LNG under long-term contracts while selling cargoes on the spot market as prices surged after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In August, Venture Global won a case against Shell at the International Chamber of Commerce but lost another against BP in October, which is seeking damages of more than $1 billion.

(Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Clarence Fernandez)