On September 8, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (the Court) upheld an award by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) granting ConocoPhillips ownership of Venezuela state oil company PDVSA’s 50% share of the Sweeney, Texas refinery. After PDVSA failed to supply its partner with crude oil according to the joint venture agreement, ConocoPhillips announced it would exercise its contractual right to buy out Venezuela. In response, PDVSA commenced arbitration under the ICC Rules on Arbitration. The arbitral panel ruled that ConocoPhillips was indeed entitled to buy out its partner, as PDVSA had breached the supply provision of the joint venture agreement. Venezuela filed an appeal with the Court, arguing that the panel’s decision was based on a “penalty clause,” and thus in violation of New York’s well established policy of refusing to enforce penalty clauses in contracts. The Court disagreed with the argument, noting that Venezuela had failed to meet the “heavy burden of demonstrating that summary affirmance is not appropriate.”  It found that “[t]he Panel's alleged misapplication of New York contract law concerning unenforceable penalties does not violate the state or nation's ‘most basic notions of morality of justice.' Such notions might be tarnished 'if the defendant's due process rights had been violated - for example, if defendant had been subject to any coercion or any part of the agreement had been the result of duress.’” In this case, “[p]etitioners do not allege any violations of due process or that their right to a fair hearing before the Panel was impugned” and “established little more than that they disagree with the decision of the Panel.”