Nigeria was the target of “a campaign of bribery and fraud” regarding a failed gas processing project, its attorneys argued before the London High Court as the nation’s appeal against a $11 billion damages award got under way.
According to Reuters, Process & Industrial Developments, a small business based in the British Virgin Islands, was given $6.6 billion in damages by a London arbitration panel in 2017 for lost earnings resulting from the failed project. That amount, after interest, has increased to little over $11 billion, or almost 30% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.
The West African nation claims that bribes were given to high-ranking members of its Ministry of Petroleum Resources in order to secure the 20-year contract that was given to P&ID in 2010.
To the contrary, P&ID contends that the gas processing arrangement was “a genuine contract which P&ID genuinely wanted to perform.”