During the Covid-19 pandemic companies have declared force majeure on contracts across the energy value chain. LNG Sales and Purchase Agreements (SPAs) are no exception. Courts in several jurisdictions have declared Covid-19 a force majeure event. Governments have issued guidelines on managing Covid-related contract disputes. The stage is set for high-value litigation turning on the validity of force majeure clauses. The purpose of this article is to help make sense of these developments. It will review the theory and application of the law of force majeure and, through comparison of six published LNG SPAs, ‘stress test’ current force majeure provisions. The article will consider how contractual risk is presently allocated in these model contracts, what drafting modifications might be applied to improve coverage, align with current case law, better reflect the market environment, and ensure contractual stability under Covid-19 conditions. The focus is on English law, given that this is the lex fori in the majority of the published contracts.

中文翻译：

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LNG买卖协议中的不可抗力条款：它们在Covid-19大流行期间如何站得住脚？^*

在Covid-19大流行期间，各大公司宣布了整个能源价值链上的合同不可抗力。LNG买卖协议（SPA）也不例外。一些司法管辖区的法院已宣布Covid-19为不可抗力事件。各国政府已发布有关与Covid相关的合同纠纷的管理准则。开启不可抗力条款的有效性，为高价值诉讼奠定了基础。本文的目的是帮助理解这些发展。它将审查不可抗力定律的理论和应用，并通过比较六个已发布的LNG SPA，对当前的不可抗力条款进行“压力测试”。本文将考虑目前如何在这些示范合同中分配合同风险，可以采用哪些起草修改以提高覆盖率，与当前判例法保持一致，更好地反映市场环境，并确保在Covid-19条件下的合同稳定性。鉴于这是大多数已发布合同中的法律依据，因此重点放在英国法律上。