The UK Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Process & Industrial Development (P&ID), affirming that a £43 million award in favour of Nigeria should be paid in British pounds, not naira. A five-member panel, led by Lord Hodge and Lady Simler, ruled that legal costs should match the currency in which they were billed and paid, rejecting P&ID’s claim that Nigeria gained a financial advantage due to naira depreciation.
The case stems from Nigeria’s successful challenge of two arbitral awards worth over $11 billion, which were overturned in 2023 by the Commercial Court for being “procured by fraud” and violating public policy.
Nigeria incurred £44.2 million in legal expenses, paid in sterling, between 2019 and 2024. The Court emphasized that costs awards are discretionary, not compensatory, and should reflect the currency of the expenses without leading to complex litigation over funding sources.
In 2010, P&ID signed a gas processing plant deal with Nigeria in Calabar, which failed to materialize.
P&ID claimed Nigeria breached the agreement, securing a $6.6 billion arbitration award in 2017, which grew to $11 billion with interest. Nigeria argued the deal was fraudulent, a claim upheld in 2023 when Justice Robin Knowles nullified the award, citing bribery and illegal access to confidential documents by P&ID. The Supreme Court also ordered P&ID to cover Nigeria’s standard-basis costs for the appeal.
