Chevron Bangladesh Block Twelve, Ltd. and Chevron Bangladesh Blocks Thirteen and Fourteen, Ltd. v. People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation

At a glance

Parties

Chevron Bangladesh Block Twelve, Ltd. and Chevron Bangladesh Blocks Thirteen and Fourteen, Ltd. (Bermuda) v. People's Republic of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation

Case no.

ICSID Case No. ARB/24/39

Forum and rules

ICSID Convention arbitration; ICSID Arbitration Rules in force as of 1 July 2022; place of proceeding Washington, D.C.

Treaty

Contract (per the ICSID case database)

Tribunal

Roger Stewart KC (President), Stephen L. Drymer, Jorge E. Viñuales

Sector

Oil and gas; exploration, development and production of natural gas

Outcome

Pending. The published documents are procedural orders only. The latest, Procedural Order No. 3 (12 June 2026), largely upheld the Claimants' privilege claims but ordered production of documents withheld under the Trust Deed's confidentiality clause.

The dispute

Two Bermudan Chevron companies, within U.S.-based structures, brought a contract-based ICSID claim against Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation over natural gas exploration, development and production. The published orders do not set out the claims in full. They show that the Claimants issued cost recovery invoices in August 2022, after the dispute had been aired at a December 2021 joint management meeting. They also show that an issue in the case is whether the Respondents must reimburse sums the Claimants paid to a trust. That trust was set up under a Trust Deed to settle employees' claims under section 234 of the Labour Act 2006 and to establish Workers' Participation and Welfare funds. The Respondents' defences on the merits do not appear in the published documents.

Key holdings

1. The procedure is governed by the 2022 ICSID Arbitration Rules as amended by the procedural orders. The Tribunal was constituted on 30 January 2025, and the place of proceeding is Washington, D.C. English is the procedural language, and document production follows Articles 3 and 9 of the IBA Rules (2020). PO1 §§ 1.1, 2.1, 10.1, 11.1, 15.1
2. The Claimants consented to publication of the Award; the Respondents did not. ICSID will therefore publish only excerpts of the Award. Orders and decisions will be published with redactions, and hearings are closed to the public. PO2 ¶¶ 10–13
3. Privilege is not governed by Bangladesh law (the Evidence Act 1872 and the Bar Council Canons). Under Article 9.4(c) of the IBA Rules the Tribunal looked to the parties' expectations. On that basis, three kinds of documents are protected unless privilege has been waived: documents prepared to obtain or record legal advice, documents prepared for contemplated litigation, and advice from in-house as well as external lawyers. PO3 ¶¶ 18–31
4. A dispute was in contemplation before August 2022, as shown by the December 2021 joint management meeting. Pre-August 2022 documents can therefore attract privilege. PO3 ¶ 36
5. An adequate privilege claim was made for attachments ('child' documents). However, the Claimants' external lawyers, not the Claimants themselves, must examine each attachment, and any that do not permit inferences about the legal advice must be produced. PO3 ¶ 39
6. There was no 'cherry-picking' of documents that would cause loss of privilege. The descriptions given for documents withheld as commercially sensitive were sufficient. PO3 ¶¶ 42, 45
7. Clause 19 of the Trust Deed allows disclosure where it is "required for use in legal proceedings regarding this Deed of Trust". The word "regarding" covers this arbitration, so the documents withheld under clause 19 must be produced, subject to appropriate confidentiality protection. The rest of the Respondents' application was dismissed. PO3 ¶¶ 48–50

Procedural history

1. 13 August 2024Request for Arbitration dated.
2. 30 January 2025Tribunal constituted. Arbitrators' appointments were accepted on 28 October 2024, 29 October 2024 and 30 January 2025.
3. 17 March 2025First session held by video conference.
4. 4 April 2025Procedural Order No. 1 sets out the procedural rules and timetables.
5. 7 April 2025Procedural Order No. 2 on transparency and confidentiality.
6. 8 January 2026Tribunal decides the Parties' disputed document requests.
7. 10 April 2026Respondents apply for further document production, challenging the Claimants' privilege logs.
8. 12 June 2026Procedural Order No. 3 on document production: privilege largely upheld; Trust Deed documents ordered produced.

Tribunal, counsel and experts

Decided by

• Roger Stewart President
• Stephen L. Drymer Co-arbitrator
• Jorge E. Viñuales Co-arbitrator

For the claimant

Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP (A&O Shearman) · Accord Chambers · Rana Kawar · Meredith Craven

For the respondent

Foley Hoag LLP · Supreme Court of Bangladesh (local counsel) · Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources · Petrobangla

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Keywords

• Chevron
• Bangladesh
• Petrobangla
• natural gas
• contract claim
• document production
• legal privilege
• litigation privilege
• in-house counsel privilege
• IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence
• Article 9.4 IBA Rules
• privilege log
• attachments
• commercial sensitivity
• Trust Deed
• Labour Act 2006
• Workers' Participation and Welfare Fund
• cost recovery

Summary generated with AI from the published documents — refer to the award for the authoritative text.