Targa Resources Corp. 10-Q

Item 1. Legal Proceedings. On December 26, 2018, Vitol Americas Corp. (“Vitol”) filed a lawsuit in the 80 th District Court of Harris County (the “District Court”), Texas against Targa Channelview LLC, then a subsidiary of the Company (“Targa Channelview”), seeking recovery of $129.0 million in payments made to Targa Channelview, additional monetary damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. Vitol alleges that Targa Channelview breached an agreement, dated December 27, 2015, for crude oil and condensate between Targa Channelview and Noble Americas Corp. (the “Splitter Agreement”), which provided for Targa Channelview to construct a crude oil and condensate splitter (the “Splitter”) adjacent to a barge dock owned by Targa Channelview to provide services contemplated by the Splitter Agreement. In January 2018, Vitol acquired Noble Americas Corp. and on December 23, 2018, Vitol voluntarily elected to terminate the Splitter Agreement claiming that Targa Channelview failed to timely achieve start-up of the Splitter. Vitol’s lawsuit also alleges Targa Channelview made a series of misrepresentations about the capability of the barge dock that would service crude oil and condensate volumes to be processed by the Splitter and Splitter products. Vitol seeks return of $129.0 million in payments made to Targa Channelview prior to the start-up of the Splitter, as well as additional damages. On the same date that Vitol filed its lawsuit, Targa Channelview filed a lawsuit against Vitol seeking a judicial determination that Vitol’s sole and exclusive remedy was Vitol’s voluntarily termination of the Splitter Agreement and, as a result, Vitol was not entitled to the return of any prior payments under the Splitter Agreement or other damages as alleged. Targa also seeks recovery of its attorneys’ fees and costs in the lawsuit. On October 15, 2020, the District Court awarded Vitol $129.0 million (plus interest) following a bench trial. In addition, the District Court awarded Vitol $10.5 million in damages for losses and demurrage on crude oil that Vitol purchased for start-up efforts. The Company has filed an appeal challenging the award, and the appeal is currently pending in the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, Texas. In October 2020, we sold Targa Channelview but, under the agreements governing the sale, we retained the liabilities associated with the Vitol proceedings. Additional information required for this item is provided in Note 14 – Contingencies, under the heading “Legal Proceedings” included in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included under Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report, which is incorporated by reference into this item.