A Lagos High Court has set aside the arbitral tribunal award, which dismissed Global Gas and Refining Limited’s claim for a breach of contract for the supply of gas by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
The presiding judge, Justice Taofiquat Oyekan-Abdullahi, delivered the ruling in Suit No: LD/1910GCM/2017 between Global Gas and Refining Limited v. SPDC.
In his ruling, the judge set aside the ICC Award in which the majority of the Arbitral Tribunal (Prof. Oba Nsugbe, QC, (SAN) & Mrs. Doyin Rhodes-Vivour (SAN) with Mrs. Dorothy Udeme Ufot (SAN) delivering a minority opinion upholding the claims of the claimant) dismissed the claimant’s claims.
The judge underscored the fundamental importance of full disclosure in international commercial arbitration. She, thus, upheld the argument of Global Gas that the failure and neglect of the President of the Arbitral Tribunal, Prof. Nsugbe, QC, (SAN) to disclose his earlier involvement in a matter in which the SPDC was involved amounted to gross misconduct for which the award delivered by the majority of the Arbitral Tribunal ought to and must be set aside.
Global Gas Refining Limited (GGRL) is an independent indigenous gas processing operator and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) producer, operating in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.
