Quaker Supports Win in One of the Largest

International Arbitration Disputes

Quaker Group provided Expert Witness written and oral testimony (direct & cross) for a London International Arbitration Tribunal in an action involving an $38 billion damages claim against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The case was predicated on the proximate economic impact of an ISIS attack on the Kirkuk P/L in northern Iraq subsequent to the Iraq war.

The +3 year case involved naphtha and LPG processing and market price setting mechanisms. Other key elements involved a complex economic assessment of Kirkuk crude oil netback pricing at the Ceyhan, Turkey port facility. Kirkuk crude oil value scenarios were developed on the basis of compositional value with and without the additon of a naphtha condensate stream (the counterclaim nexus). The claimants argued an outrageous value of naphtha as a crude blend component. The high naphtha value was predicated on an oversimplified, naive, and incorrect linear relationship between crude oil value and gravity (API).

The case was high profile involving hundreds of attorneys and other discovery support from around the world. The case also touched on the legitmacy and viability of naphtha exports to Iran under a UN sanctioned oil embargo. The Tribnunal in this case was led by Barons Hoffmann and Collins, two of the most distinguished Judges to sit on the UK Supreme Court.