ENI fights back; sues Ghana in London over unitisation directive
Norvanreports can confidently report that Italian oil major, ENI SPA, has filed a lawsuit at the International Tribunal in London, United Kingdom, to challenge the unitisation of its Sankofa oil field with that of Springfield’s Afina oil field as per a directive issued by Ghana’s Ministry for Energy.
In a statement filed on behalf of the oil major by three renowned lawyers namely Craig Tevendale, Andrew Cannon and Charlie Morgan from Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, Eni is seeking five reliefs from the Tribunal.
Per the reliefs, ENI wants the Tribunal to declare that the purported 9th April Directive, 14th October Directive, 6th November Directive and any other steps taken to implement those directives represent a breach of contract under the Petroleum Agreement.
The claimant also wants the Tribunal to declare that the respondents take no further action to implement the purported unitisation of the Sankofa Field and Afina Discovery on the terms of the purported 14th October Directive, the Draft Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement (UUOA) sought to be imposed by purported November Directive or otherwise.
The third relief the claimant is seeking is an order that the respondent pays damages in an amount to be quantified for the losses suffered by the claimant arising out of the respondent’s breaches of the petroleum agreement, Ghanaian law and International law on a joint and several bases.
Additionally, ENI is seeking an order that the respondent pays all of the costs and expenses of the arbitration including the fees and expenses of the claimant counsel and any witnesses and/or experts in the Arbitration, the fees and expenses of the Tribunal and the fees of the SCC on a joint and several bases and /or order such further or other relief as the tribunal may in its discretion consider appropriate.
ENI’s suit comes on the back of an earlier ruling by a Commercial High Court in Accra, Ghana on Friday, June 25, 2021, which ruled in favour of Springfield, the Ghanaian wholly onwed upstream firm.
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In the aforementioned ruling, the Commercial High Court among other things demanded that Eni Ghana relinquish 30 percent of revenues accrued from the sale of crude oil from the Sankofa field and make monthly payments of approximately $40 million into an account agreed upon by both companies.
Clearly, ENI disagrees with the ruling of the court hence its suit at the London Tribunal.
Background
In April 2020, Ghana’s former Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu issued a directive to Eni and Springfield E&P to begin talks and combine their adjacent oil and gas fields in April and gave them until September 18 to reach an agreement.
The Minister’s directive said that seismic data had indicated Eni’s Sankofa offshore field, which entered production in 2017, and Springfield’s Afina Discovery had identical reservoir and fluid properties.
But more than a year after the directive, both Eni and Springfield E&P have failed to unitise the Sankofa offshore field and Afina Discovery.
