$3.8bn EginaProject: Firm Begins Committal Proceedings againstPromoters

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Barely one year after Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) Nigeria Limited, and Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) settled out- of- court, the legal dispute over the $3.8 billion Egina Floating Production Storage Offshore (FPSO) project, a legal firm of Enitan and Associates has stated that it had commenced committal proceedings against some of the promoters of the Egina project, THISDAY has learnt.

Located 130 kilometres offshore in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 in deep offshore Nigeria, the Egina field development is a project to build FPSO for Total Upstream Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

LADOL had dragged Samsung, Total and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to a Federal High Court over alleged plot to exclude the firm from the execution of the local component of the Egina FPSO vessel.

In the proceedings, which were issued for LADOL by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Professor Fidelis Oditah, LADOL is seeking 19 reliefs and appealed to the court to make a declaration that a contract awarded by Total to Samsung on or about March 15, 2013 for the construction and installation of FPSO at Total’s Egina oilfield is subject to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010.

Though LADOL and Samsung have since settled out-of-court, THISDAY gathered that committal proceedings had commenced against Samsung, Total, Deux Nigeria Limited and others for alleged disobedience of court orders.

Citing the orders of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1768/2014 in a statement made available to THISDAY, Enitan and Associates urged that “the general public, particularly the financial institutions funding the above-named project are hereby warned that the orders of the Honourable Court are still subsisting and all persons are legally obligated to comply with same.”

“Any person (corporate of individual) that acts contrary to the orders of court will be in contempt and be proceeded against accordingly,” the statement added.

According to the legal practitioners and arbitrators, “the court granted interlocutory injunction against Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigeria Limited and others restraining them either by themselves or through their agents, privies, proxies, affiliates or subsidiaries from:

“(i) Continuing or taking any further action or steps towards the execution of the award of the contract for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of a FPSO unit in the Egina Field within OML 130 pending the determination of the substantive suit; (ii) giving effect to and implementing the award of the aforesaid Egina FPSO contract either by way of operating/executing same, or dealing in any way whatsoever and howsoever with the aforesaid Egina FPSO contract pending the determination of the substantive suit.”