By RFIPissed 17-08-2019Modified on 17-08-2019 at 22:41

A London court ruled Friday, August 16, right to petition Nigeria for seizure of a gas project.

The case begins in 2010, when Process and Industrial Developments Ltd. (P & ID), a company based in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, signs an agreement with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, a coastal city close to the Cameroonian border.

The agreement included that the Nigerian authorities supply gas to P & ID. But they have not fulfilled their commitments and the company, whose project had to be abandoned, files a complaint before an arbitral tribunal. In 2013, he ordered Abuja to pay the company 6.6 billion dollars (5.9 billion euros). That is an estimate of what she would have earned during the 20 years of the agreement.

Nigeria tries to overturn the judgment, asserting that it was not submitted to international arbitration, and considers that it is up to the British courts to decide.

It finally validated the request for seizure on Friday, August 16th and the 6.6 billion (5.9 billion euros) even turned into 9 billion (8.1 billion euros), with the addition of interest generated since 2013.

This sum is today equal to 20% of the country's foreign exchange reserves. The government has not yet decided on this verdict, but it already judged in 2017 the amount " excessive ". The company's lawyer assured that she would start the seizure procedure as soon as possible.

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