Following Nigeria’s triumph in an $11 billion judgment debt case in October, a UK court has directed Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited to pay £20 million in damages and compensation to Nigeria within the next 28 days.
The £20 million damages award was disclosed during a consequential ruling in London to determine the subsequent steps after the October judgment. Reports indicate that the hearing also addressed whether P&ID would be granted permission to appeal the case. However, the UK Court denied P&ID permission to take the matter back to arbitration.
The Court justified the £20 million damages award to Nigeria based on P&ID’s reprehensible conduct in securing the gas processing contract. Notably, Nigeria sought at least £20 million from P&ID to cover damages and legal fees.
Background:
In 2010, P&ID entered an agreement with Nigeria to construct and operate a gas processing facility in Calabar, Cross River State. The deal collapsed, with P&ID accusing Nigeria of breaching the contract. Subsequently, P&ID took legal action against Nigeria.
In 2017, a tribunal ruled that Nigeria should compensate P&ID with $6.6 billion in damages, along with a 7% interest rate. In September 2020, a UK court ordered Nigeria to pay the damages to P&ID.
Nigeria’s lawyers claimed that P&ID obtained the gas processing contract through bribery, which P&ID vehemently denied as “unfounded allegations and conspiracy theories.”
In March, lawyers representing the Nigerian government urged the UK Court to invalidate the arbitration award, citing fraud in obtaining the gas processing contract.
In October 2023, Nigeria secured relief as the UK court set aside the $11 billion judgment debt previously awarded in favor of P&ID. Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales stated, “Nigeria succeeds on its challenge under section 68. The awards were obtained by fraud, and the way in which they were procured was contrary to public policy.”
