Mexico’s state oil firm Pemex lost out to the tune of almost half a billion dollars in the latest phase of an arbitration case when a US appeals court upheld a previous court’s ruling in a contract dispute, according to Reuters.
The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York let stand a previous ruling to award $300m to a unit of KBR and added another $106m to the amount. An interest element of $59m took the total to $465m.
The court case dates back to 2004 when a disagreement between KBR unit COMMISA and Pemex over a 1997 contract for the construction of two oil platforms came to a head. Pemex ended up rescinding the contracts but keeping the platforms which were almost complete at the time.
COMMISA first won the award with an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal in 2009. It was then confirmed by US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in 2010. And now this latest affirmation.
KBR is an American engineering, procurement and construction company.
Pemex has not said if it will appeal further.
