Ghana to file response to Eni suit at London Tribunal on September 16
Ghana, is said to file its response to the legal suit made by Italian oil major, Eni SPA at the International Tribunal in London, United Kingdom, on Thursday, September 16, 2021.
This is per information gathered by norvanreports.com.
Although the contents of government’s response which is yet to be filed are unknown, it is expected that the State in its response will defend the Energy Ministry’s directive for the unitisation of Eni’s Sankofa oil field and Springfield’s Afina oil field and the benefits the State stands to derive from the unitisation using the unitisation between Tullow Oil and Kosmos Energy as a classical case study.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has bemoaned Eni’s decision of filing a suit against the State over the unitisation directive by the Energy Ministry.
The President has however, assured Ghanaians of ensuring that the issue is resolved amicably.
“I’m still very upset that at the end of day, the matter that we were having discussions on has become the subject of notice of arbitration.”
“This matter should be settled and I will do my possible best to resolve it,” the President said.
ENI a week ago 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.
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.
