Judgment

Dalveer Bhandari, J. —

1.Great Offshore Limited has filed a petition under section 11(5)((6)(9) and (12) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 whereby the applicant seeks the appointment of a sole arbitrator. The applicant, Great Offshore Ltd., submits that it has entered into a charter party agreement with the respondent, Iranian Offshore Engineering & Construction Company. The charter party agreement (“CPA”) contains an arbitration clause. Relying on this clause, the applicant has asked this Court to appoint an arbitrator to resolve the dispute. The respondent, however, contends that the two parties had not progressed beyond the stage of negotiation and that there is no concluded contract between them. Therefore, it is argued that there is no question of referring the dispute to arbitration.

2.Brief facts which are relevant to dispose of this arbitration petition are recapitulated below.

3.The charter party agreement in dispute marks the second time the parties have done business with each other. The first time was in 2004. In March of that year, the respondent entered into a contract with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (“ONGC”) to carry out constructio