Gov’t files response to Eni unitisation impasse at the International Tribunal

 

Ghana has filed a response to the suit by the Italian oil giant Eni, at the International Tribunal in London, United Kingdom.

Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame disclosed this but declined to give details .

The response comes barely a three weeks after President Akufo-Addo assured of am amicable solution to the impasse.

President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance on Friday when he met some chiefs in the Western Region at the Western Regional House of Chiefs during his tour of the region.

..I’m still very upset that at the end of day, the matter that we were having discussion on has become the subject of notice of arbitration,”

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..We should settle this matter and I will do my possible best to resolve it,” he  told the chiefs.

Background

Italian oil giant , Eni, last week  filed a suit at the International Tribunal in London, United Kingdom, to challenge a directive by Ghana’s Ministry of Energy, asking them to unitise Sankofa offshore oil field and Afina oil block operated by Springfield E&P, a wholly Ghanaian upstream player.

In a statement filed by three renowned lawyers namely Craig Tevendale, Andrew Cannon and Charlie Morgan from Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, Eni is seeking five reliefs from the Tribunal.

The claimant wants the Tribunal to declare that the purported 9th April Directive, 14th October Directive, 6th November Directive and any other steps taken to implement those directives represent a breach of contract under the Petroleum Agreement.

The third relief the claimant is seeking is an order that the respondent pays damages in an amount to be quantified for the losses suffered by the claimant arising out of the respondent’s breaches of the petroleum agreement, Ghanaian law and International law on a joint and several basis.

Additionally, the claimant is seeking and order that the respondent pays all of the costs and expenses of the arbitration including the fees and expenses of the claimant counsel and any witnesses and/or experts in the Arbitration, the fees and expenses of the Tribunal and the fees of the SCC on a joint and several basis and /or an order such further or other relief as the tribunal may in its discretion consider appropriate.

It would be recalled that in April 2020, Ghana’s former Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu issued a directive to Eni and Springfield E&P to begin talks and combine their adjacent oil and gas fields in April and gave them until September 18 to reach an agreement.