An International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal has ordered Bolivia’s state-owned oil company to pay US$10 million to a subsidiary of Dutch oil giant Shell over outstanding debts owed by a previous administration.

The deputy leader of Bolivia’s opposition party, José Manuel Ormachea, announced on 12 August that Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YFPB) had been found liable in the proceeding launched by Shell’s Bolivian entity. Ormachea said YFPB had been ordered to pay US$10 million in damages to the Shell entity, which had sought US$26 million in the arbitration.

Bolivia’s attorney general César Siles released a statement the next day – confirming the result but stating that YPFB will be launching set-aside proceedings.

The Shell entity was represented by Ferrere (Bolivia) and Ferrere (Uruguay) and PPO Abogados in Santa Cruz, while YPFB used a team from Argentine firm Guglielmino International Law.

Little is known about the dispute, but it relates to outstanding payments for oil production under the administration of Jeanine Añez, who served as Bolivia’s president from 2019 to 2020. Shell filed the ICC claim in 2020.

The La Paz-seated tribunal was chaired by Costa Rica’s former foreign trade minister Dyalá Jiménez Figueres. Shell appointed Argentina’s Victor Gustavo Parodi, while YPFB appointed Spanish-Argentine arbitrator Diego Fernández Arroyo.

According to Siles, the tribunal awarded damages in respect of four out of six claims brought against YPBF by Shell.

Ormachea said the result was further evidence that the Bolivian authorities, especially its State Attorney General’s Office, were insufficiently prepared to defend the state’s interests in international cases.

Last month, the Bolivian attorney general disclosed that the state’s ministry of health was facing a US$14 million claim from a Spanish construction company over a project to build a hospital. Counsel to the parties has not been disclosed.

Bolivia was threatened at the beginning of the year with a potential claim from a Russian company over payments allegedly owed for supplies of Russia’s state-developed covid-19 vaccine.

The state has also had several recent wins, including against a treaty claim brought by the estate of a deceased dual national over the alleged expropriation of mining concessions, a US$270 million claim brought by a Peruvian group over the nationalisation of a cement producer, and an ICC claim brought by an Indian steelmaker over a terminated mining partnership.