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Fondel and Azpetrol international arbitration dismissed

01 October 2009 16:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov - APA-ECONOMICS. A tribunal comprising of some of the worldâ€™s leading public international lawyers issued its final Award on 8 September 2009 in ICSID Case No. ARB/06/15 between Azpetrol International Holdings B.V., Azpetrol Group B.V., and Azpetrol Oil Services Group B.V. v. Republic of Azerbaijan.
In its Award, the Tribunal found that the parties had entered into a final and binding settlement agreement in December 2008, which disposed of all of the issues in dispute, and has accordingly dismissed the claim for want of jurisdiction.
Allen & Overy acted for the respondent, the Republic of Azerbaijan, in defending claims valued in excess of USD300 million brought under the Energy Charter Treaty by three Dutch companies which claimed to hold interests in an Azerbaijani energy group. Azerbaijan objected to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal on grounds including that the claimants were â€œmailboxâ€ companies owned or controlled by nationals of a â€œthird stateâ€ to whom it was entitled, and had in fact, denied the advantages of the Energy Charter Treaty pursuant to Article 17(1).
The Tribunal consisted of Judge Florentino P. Feliciano (President), replacing the late Sir Arthur Watts, Judge Charles N. Brower and Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood, CMG, QC.

The arbitration is the second of two ICSID arbitrations, in which Allen & Overy has been representing Azerbaijan, brought by Dutch holding companies owned by the same Azerbaijani individual.

The first, ICSID Case No. ARB/07/01, Fondel Metal Participations B.V. v. Republic of Azerbaijan , concluded in January 2009 when the claimant also withdrew its claims, again without any payment or other compensation from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan was represented by Stephen Jagusch, London-based partner in Allen & Overyâ€™s international arbitration group, assisted by Senior Associates Anthony Sinclair and Jeff Sullivan, and Associates Lucia Raimanova and Matthew Hodgson.

The claimants were represented by Juliet Blanch and Andy Moody of McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP.

The full text is available at http://ita.law.uvic.ca/documents/Azpetrolaward.pdf