FG ordered to pay British firm $9bn over ‘failed’ gas supply contract

A UK tribunal has ordered the federal government to pay Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), a British firm, $9 billion in damages for an ongoing legal dispute.

The court case arose from a “failed” gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) awarded the British firm in 2010.

The contract was to process wet gas to power Nigeria’s generating plants.

According to a press statement by P&ID, the GSPA failed when the Nigerian government did not uphold its commitment to the contract.

The company thereafter initiated arbitration proceedings in August 2012, after which a tribunal in London, UK, was formed in January 2017.

The tribunal then ordered the federal government to pay P&ID $6 billion in damages, plus $2.3million in uncollected interest.

“That figure has since been attracting interest at the rate of $1.2 million per day, and currently stands at over $9 billion,” the company said in a statement.

Brendan Cahill, founder of P &ID, said the company looks forward to UK and US courts granting enforcement rights that will allow P&ID to “collect what is rightfully its”.

He said the company was open to negotiations with the Nigerian government to settle the dispute out of court.

“Efforts by Nigeria to evade this judgment will inevitably fall flat. The ball is in Nigeria’s court, if the government is prepared to find a good-faith solution”, the statement quoted him as saying.

“The P&ID project would have supplied 2,000 megawatts of electricity in a country where tens of millions do not have access to electricity. The award judgment was handed down by the independent arbitration panel because it represented the loss of profits for P&ID over the 20 years of the project.

“P&ID remains open to a settlement on a reasonable basis, but we need a willing partner in government to help resolve this matter.”

In February, the office of the attorney-general of Nigeria (AGF) issued a statement contesting the huge amount the court awarded P&ID as damages, largely on the grounds that the project did not actually kick off.

But Cahill had said the company spent “two and a half years on planning, field work, design and on-the-ground preparation.”

The next hearing on the case will come up in a London court, on May 21.