The litigation team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has saved the country $4.750 billion in liabilities through successes it recorded in arbitration cases involving the corporation and some corporate bodies.
A statement on Wednesday said the arbitrations saw the NNPC team conferred with the prize of the Leading Case Counsel Team of the 2020 Africa Arbitration Awards.
The cases include the IPCO (Nigeria) Vs. NNPC over the Bonny Export Terminal Project in which $367.5m was saved after 13 years of litigation.
An enforcement claim of $2.7bn was also dismissed in the ESSO E&P Nigeria Limited Vs. NNPC case over the interpretation of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) covering Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 209/Oil Mining Lease (OML) 133.
Other recent arbitrations include: ESSO & Others Vs. NNPC on alleged breaches for PSC covering OPL 222/OML 138 with over $380.141 million saved; and the Atlantic Energy Group Vs NPDC over wrongful termination of agreement on eight OMLs resulting in $1.6bn award to NPDC.
NNPC’s spokesman Kennie Obateru, said the award was won at the 8th edition of the East African International Arbitration Conference (EAIC) in Nairobi, Kenya, recently with participants joining in virtually.
“The award is a testimony to the commitment of the Legal Division and indeed the staff of the corporation to the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda of the Malam Mele Kyari-led management of NNPC,” the statement said.
