UK court overturns $11 billion damages bill for collapsed gas deal against Nigeria

A court in the United Kingdom has ruled in favour of Nigeria and overturned an $11 billion damages bill involving the controversial Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) deal.
Reuters reports that the court agreed with Nigeria’s argument that the deal was for a collapsed gas processing contract, which was said to have been fraudulently procured through bribery.
In 2010, the P&ID was awarded a 20-year contract to construct and operate a gas processing plant in Southern Nigeria to exploit the country’s abundant gas reserves.
When the deal failed, the British Virgin Islands-based company dragged Nigeria to court in London in 2017 and was awarded $6.6 billion for profits losses.
Due to interest, the damages bill has increased to over $11 billion, which, according to the news outlet, represented around a third of Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.
Counsel for Nigeria, however, insisted the country was a victim of “a campaign of bribery and deception” by P&ID, adding that the company paid bribes to Nigerian officials to win the contract and corrupted the country’s lawyers to obtain confidential documents during the arbitration.
The company denied the allegation of bribery and corruption against them and blamed the failure of the gas deal and the country’s arbitration defeat on institutional incompetence.
“I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations,” Judge Robin Knowles said in the ruling on Monday, adding that the arbitration awards “were obtained by fraud and the awards were, and the way in which they were procured was, contrary to public policy.”
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette

Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Port Harcourt
Police condemn gruesome killing of four in River community
The command’s spokesperson described the incident as unfortunate and disturbing.

States
Gov Sule sacks six commissioners in cabinet reshuffle
Mr Magaji added that the former commissioners would continue to be part of the government.

Health
MSF raises alarm over rising cholera cases in Borno
Mr Yakubu said MSF currently supports two cholera treatment centres and five cholera treatment units.

NationWide
FAAN launches waste recycling scheme at MMIA
Ms Kuku said the first phase involved introducing indoor colour-coded waste recycling bins across airport terminals.

Agriculture
Farming is reliable income generation in retirement: Poultry Association
Mr Adegbenro said that poultry farming remains a verifiable tool to combat the challenges associated with retirement.

States
Man, 55, remanded in Edo over alleged kidnapping
the Defence Counsel, Emmanuel Afolabi (SAN), did not oppose the prosecution’s application.





