In a recent study of challenges to pricing in Asia's liquefied natural gas markets, Howard Rogers and Jonathan Stern of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies suggest that every market where prices have been liberalised and hubs created has seen "contractual train wrecks", and that for Asian markets to avert such a scenario is "by no means guaranteed". Darina Maláčová of De Brauw and Yuri Yashiro of Bredin Prat report on a recent event in Singapore that considered this ominous prediction.
The event was organised by the " Best Friends", a group of international law firms that includes BonelliErede, Bredin Prat, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Hengeler Mueller, Slaughter and May and Uría Menéndez, together with McKinsey & Company and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).
Edward van Geuns, partner at De Brauw, opened by quoting Rogers and Stern's prediction in "Challenges to JCC Pricing in Asian LNG Markets", published in February 2014. The day would focus on the challenges that face Asia's markets, with market experts sharing their experience of resolving gas pricing disputes caused by the dramatic changes that afflicted the European gas business in the past decade, he said. They would also consider whether the Asian markets are likely to suffer a high level of stress in the near future and, if so, how market players should prepare themselves.
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Global Arbitration Review, 4 November 2015
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