A Mineral Resources subsidiary has failed in its bid to keep hundreds of documents confidential in a legal dispute.
A Mineral Resources subsidiary has failed in its bid to keep hundreds of documents confidential in a legal dispute.
Energy Resources Limited and Cactus Wellhead Australia have been in legal proceedings since 2023.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission data shows Energy Resources is a foreign company with Chris Ellison, Mark Wilson, and Derek Oelofse listed as its directors.
In a judgment delivered yesterday, Supreme Court of Western Australia Justice Michael Lundberg granted Cactus Wellhead’s application to inspect Energy Resources Limited’s documents.
The judgment revealed Cactus Wellhead challenged Energy Resources’ claims of privilege over some 500 documents relating to an investigation process.
Energy Resources holds the petroleum exploration permit over the Lockyer Deep-1 site in the Perth Basin.
The company entered into a contract with Cactus Wellhead in mid-2020, for the latter to manufacture, supply and service equipment for onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling, fracking, completion, and production, according to the judgment.
A dispute arose when Energy Resources alleged Cactus Wellhead supplied a defective part, causing an installation at the exploration well to fail in 2021.
Energy Resources claimed it has allowed Cactus Wellhead to inspect about 4,722 documents.
However, Energy Resources has claimed legal professional privilege over a further 519 documents particularly correspondence with its senior legal counsel Lance Perry, the judgment revealed.
Cactus Wellhead claimed Energy Resources had waived its privilege over the documents because it had already provided a witness statement and certain reports.
In his judgment, Justice Lundberg found Energy Resources failed to demonstrate that the documents were created for the dominant purpose of providing legal advice.
“I will assess that evidentiary material in more detail below, but it is sufficient to observe at this stage that the defendant has identified the existence of additional purposes beyond the purpose of legal advice which has been advanced by the plaintiff,” his judgment reads.
Justice Lundberg found that two reports containing technical information did not fall under the legal professional privilege.
“None of these documents reveal any legal advice which had been provided to the plaintiff, nor any detailed conclusions developed as part of the investigation,” he said in his judgment.
ASIC data shows Cactus Wellhead Australia is owned by United States company Cactus Wellhead LLC.
