Justice Mahazan Mat Taib dismissed the national oil company’s application to convert Shell MDS’s interpleader originating summons into a writ, saying the payment dispute between Petronas and Petros concerned questions of law rather than questions of fact.
She said that in a writ case, witnesses are called to testify instead of relying on written statements, but this was not necessary in the case at hand as there were no disputed facts.
“There is no basis for a conversion from an OS to a writ, as the issue is related to the gas sales agreement (between Petronas and Shell MDS, and Petros and Shell MDS) and other related government instruments,” she was quoted as saying by The Edge.
She also said there was no question of witness credibility as the issue concerned federal and state laws, adding that a full trial would delay the resolution of the case.
“This does not justify conversion as facts are not disputed, and the issue is on legal and documentary evidence. The court agrees to maintain the interpleader OS and not convert it into an adversarial trial,” Mahazan said.
Petros and the Sarawak government had opposed Petronas’s Feb 21 application to convert the proceedings into a full trial, while Shell MDS took a neutral stance.
Mahazan directed that a date be fixed for the filing of documents.
However, Petronas’s counsel, Khoo Guan Huat and Azian Aziz, sought a case management date to obtain further instructions. The judge then set the matter for online review on Nov 10.
Today’s proceedings were also attended by federal counsel Muhammad Muhairi Mohamad Noh, representing the federal government; Foo Joon Liang, counsel for Petros; and JC Foong, representing the Sarawak government.
Christopher Leong and Janet Chai acted for Shell MDS.
On Sept 22, the appellate court set aside an interim injunction obtained by Shell MDS from the Kuala Lumpur High Court stopping it from having to make monthly payments for gas obtained from Petronas, following competing invoice claims from Petros.
Shell MDS was ordered to pay the outstanding amount owed to Petronas by Oct 6 for the period of August 2024 up to Oct 5 this year.
Petronas claimed that Shell MDS had owed between RM70 million and RM80 million a month since August 2024, following the injunction imposed by the High Court in January this year. The amount owed, including interest, may reach close to RM1 billion.
The High Court injunction was granted after Shell MDS received competing invoices of RM80 million each from Petronas and Petros, which has been the gas aggregator for Sarawak since March.