Statoil ASA v Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP, Court of Appeal - Commercial Court, September 29, 2008, [2008] 2 Lloyd's Rep 685,[2008] EWHC 2257 (Comm)

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Statoil ASA v Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP, Court of Appeal - Commercial Court, September 29, 2008, [2008] 2 Lloyd's Rep 685,[2008] EWHC 2257 (Comm)

Neutral Citation Number: [2008] EWHC 2257 (Comm)

Case No: 2007-1115

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

COMMERCIAL COURT

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 29/09/2008

Before :

THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE AIKENS

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Between :

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Ms Philippa Hopkins (instructed by Ince & Co, Solicitors, London) for the Claimant

Mr Michael Holmes (instructed by ReedSmith, Solicitors, London) for the Defendant

Hearing dates: 23rd and 24th September 2008

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JudgmentMr Justice Aikens:

The Claim

1. The claimant (``Statoil''), a Norwegian company trading in oil and gas, claims the sum of US$435,833.12 from the defendant, (``LD''), which is a United States company within the very well known Louis Dreyfus group of companies that trades in a large range of commodities. Statoil says that this sum is the balance of demurrage due to it under the terms of a contract for the sale of a cargo of so-called liquid propane gas (``LPG''), made in August/September 2006 between Statoil as sellers and LD as buyers (``the contract'').

2. There was a short trial which lasted 1 ½ days on Tuesday and Wednesday, 23 and 24 September 2008. It was most efficiently conducted by Miss Hopkins, for Statoil, and Mr Holmes for LD.

3. I heard evidence from 4 witnesses. Statoil called, first, Mr Nils Breivik, an LPG trader employed by Statoil, who negotiated the terms of the contract in August and September 2006. Secondly, Statoil called Mr Ole Rostrup, who was the senior demurrage analyst of Statoil in the period November 2006 to April 2007. He was involved in calculating Statoil's claim for demurrage against LD under the contract and the discussions which took place with his opposite number at LD, Mr Ray Hodge, in that period.

4. LD called, first, Mr Patrick Gorgue, its LPG trader who negotiated the contract with Mr Breivik, through the medium of Mr Steffen Andersen, a broker with Lorentzen & Stemoco (``L&S''), who broked both the LPG contract and also the charterparty for the carrying vessel. LD also called Mr Ray Hodge, the manager of LD's vessels logistics department, who negotiated the demurrage issues with Mr Rostrup in the period November 2006 to April 2007.

5. The evidence of Mr Breivik and Mr Gorgue turned out to be of only peripheral importance to one of the four issues in the case and did not involve the other issues at all. Both were as helpful as they could be in the circumstances. Mr Rostrup and Mr Hodge's evidence was central to two of the issues in the case. I will have to make some findings on their evidence in the course of this judgment.

6. The dispute between the parties concerns four issues, which I can summarise briefly now, in the hope that this will be helpful as I go through the facts. The first issue is: what were the terms of the contract for the sale of the LPG? In particular, did the contract contain a term that demurrage claims...

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