National Iranian Oil Company v Crescent Petroleum Company International Limited & Anor

This is an application by the Defendants (‘Crescent’) for an order requiring the Claimant (‘NIOC’) to pay a component of the judgment debt into court by way of security as a condition of permission to appeal the summary dismissal of its section 67 challenge. As with many aspects of the dispute between these parties, the debate on this matter has already become protracted and I considered that it was important, if possible, to give this judgment at once rather than for there to be a further delay.

The nature of the dispute between the parties is set out in my judgment of 21st October 2022, [2022] EWHC 2641 (Comm). In that judgment I decided that Crescent failed in relation to its preliminary issue under section 73 of the Arbitration Act but it succeeded in its application for summary judgment on the basis that NIOC's section 67 application had no real prospect of success

As that order provided, all consequential matters, including the question of the grant of permission to appeal, were adjourned to an oral hearing for the first convenient date, and the time for the filing of any Appellant's Notice was not to commence until the determination of all consequential matters at that hearing, or as the court should otherwise order.

The oral consequentials hearing took place on 9th November 2022 and lasted about half a day. Crescent and NIOC were both represented by leading and junior counsel. Crescent had served drafts of two orders which it wished the court to make, including that NIOC's application for permission to appeal should be refused.

At the hearing, much of the time was devoted to NIOC's application for permission to appeal. Crescent contended that permission to appeal should not be granted on any of the five grounds which NIOC put forward. Crescent did not make a suggestion that if permission to appeal were to be granted, it should be subject to a condition.