Breaking: Landmark Victory As Nigeria Wins P&ID $11bn Suit in UK

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A United Kingdom, UK, court said Nigeria has succeeded in its $11 billion case with Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Ltd for a collapsed gas processing project.

The case was initially instituted by PI&D since 2010 following a collapsed deal for which the company wants $11 billion in compensation.

PI&D, a little-known British Virgin Islands-based company, had taken Nigeria to arbitration over the collapsed deal.

With the judgement, Nigeria won its bid to overturn $11 billion damages suit brought by Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Ltd for a collapsed gas processing project in 2010.

The deal collapsed after the Federal Government officials claimed bribery in the procurement process.

Indeed, the UK court ruling came as a welcome, with a Presidency source, on Facebook, stating, “In his judgement via email, Judge Robin Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London on Monday, October 23, 2023, held that P&ID obtained its multi-billion-dollar arbitration award against Nigeria by fraud.”

The background of the case P&ID was awarded a 20-year contract in 2010 to construct and operate a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state, as part of a wider plan to exploit Nigeria’s abundant gas reserves.

After the deal collapsed, P&ID took Nigeria to arbitration in London and, on January 31, 2017, was awarded $6.6 billion for lost profits – a sum swelled with interest to over $11 billion beginning from March 20, 2013.

With the interest rate fixed at seven per cent, amounting to $1 million daily, the potential payment had accumulated over $11 billion before the verdict.

Nigeria had alleged that the gas deal was a scam conceived to defraud the country.

The Federal Government lawyers told the court that P&ID officials paid bribes to secure the contract.

But P&ID denied the allegation and accused the Nigerian government of “false allegations and wild conspiracy theories.”

The implication of the big win Nigeria was on the hook for the sum – representing around a third of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.

If Nigeria had lost the case, it would have been another massive burden to the country battling to get foreign exchange to save naira.