This archive report was first published on 17 August 2019.
On August 17, 2019, a British judge made a landmark ruling in a long-standing dispute between the Nigerian government and a private gas company, P&ID.
The company had reached a deal with the Nigerian government in 2010 to build a natural gas plant, but the agreement fell apart two years later.
P&ID then sued the government for failing to provide the gas or install the pipelines it had promised to build.
The firm was initially awarded $6.6 billion in 2017, but the London court has now added $2.4 billion in interest, bringing the total to over $9 billion.
This amount is equivalent to about 20% of Nigeria's declared foreign reserves of $45 billion.
The government argued that English courts did not have the authority to rule on the dispute, but Justice Christopher Butcher disagreed, ruling in P&ID's favour.
"I am prepared to make an order enforcing the final award," he said in his ruling statement.
The judge's decision converts the 2017 arbitration award into a legal judgment, allowing P&ID to try to seize assets from Nigeria.
Andrew Stafford QC, the barrister representing P&ID, said the firm would "begin the process of seizing Nigerian assets in order to satisfy this award as soon as possible".
