GEOENPRO PETROLEUM LTD. Vs. GEOPHYSICAL INSTITUTE OF ISRAEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present petition has been filed under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as an "Act") seeking setting aside of majority Award dated 30.07.2012 passed by the Arbitral Tribunal whereby the Tribunal has partially allowed the Claim of the Respondent herein and rejected the Counter Claim of the Petitioner.

(2.) The brief background facts are that the Government of India desired that the petroleum resources at the Kharsang Oil Fields (hereinafter referred to as "KS") be exploited with utmost expedition and in accordance with international petroleum industry practices. Therefore, Government of India entered into a Production Sharing Contract (hereinafter referred to as "PSC") on 16.06.1995 with Oil India Ltd., Geopetrol International Inc., Enpro India Ltd. and the Petitioner. Petitioner was appointed as the Operator under the Contract.

(3.) Petitioner herein as an Operator for and on behalf of KS required services for acquisition, processing and interpretation of Seismic 3D data in KS. Thus an Agreement dated 13.12.2007 was entered into between the Respondent herein and the Petitioner. Respondent Geophysical Institute of Israel is an Israeli Government Company. On 03.01.2008, a Sub-Contract Agreement was entered into between the Respondent and Asian Oilfields Services Ltd. with Respondent as the Contractor and Asian Oilfields as a sub-Contractor. This was with the approval of the Petitioner. Contract was to be performed by the Respondent in three stages (a) Data collection/acquisition (b) processing and (c) interpretation.