Wednesday 17 August 2016

Santos Ltd v Fluor Australia Pty Ltd [2016] QSC 129

Case note

In the recent Supreme Court of Queensland decision of Santos Ltd v Fluor Australia Pty Ltd [1], Justice Douglas endorsed the courts’ positive approach to giving effect to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses even where one party seeks a litigated outcome.

In this case, Santos contracted Fluor to perform work on its GLNG Project near Gladstone.  Santos became concerned about the amount claimed by Fluor under the contract, which exceeded the budget estimate by over $1.85 billion.