The UK Supreme Court has unanimously set aside a Court of Appeal’s order allowing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to advance its defence in the English Commercial Court free of any such conditions.
This grants reprieve to NNPC over a $100million bank guarantee in a case involving the corporation and a service company, IPCO (Nigeria) Limited.
The reprieve was the latest in the protracted dispute arising from the contract between NNPC and IPCO for the construction of the Bonny Export Terminal Project in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
IPCO had referred its claims to arbitration in Nigeria and obtained an Arbitral Award of US$154 million in 2004, with annual interest running at 14 per cent, leaving NNPC with no option than to promptly challenge the award at the Federal High Court in Lagos.
