Process & Industrial Developments won an arbitral award of about 6.6 billion US dollars plus interest against Nigeria in 2017 over a 2010 gas processing agreement. In October 2023 the English Commercial Court set the awards aside, finding they were obtained by fraud. Costs litigation followed in the higher courts, and Nigerian courts convicted P&ID companies and a linked director.
The awards were set aside on 21 December 2023 and P&ID was refused leave to appeal. Costs disputes continue, with Nigeria's bill under detailed assessment and its claim against P&ID's funders stayed until that is done.
Nigeria and Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), a British Virgin Islands company, signed a 20 page Gas Supply and Processing Agreement. Nigeria was to supply wet gas and P&ID was to build facilities to process it into lean gas for power generation, the High Court later recorded. It found Nigeria supplied no gas and P&ID built no facilities.
P&ID began arbitration against Nigeria over the agreement on 22 August 2012, according to the High Court and Court of Appeal. The tribunal came to comprise Lord Hoffmann, Sir Anthony Evans and Chief Bayo Ojo SAN.
The tribunal issued a part final award on liability against Nigeria, the High Court recorded.
The tribunal's final award ordered Nigeria to pay about 6.6 billion US dollars in damages with interest at 7 percent, which by 2023 had taken the total above 11 billion dollars, the High Court said. Chief Ojo gave a dissenting opinion.
P&ID applied in 2018 to enforce the awards in England, the Supreme Court later summarised.
Mr Justice Butcher held that the seat of the arbitration was England and rejected Nigeria's objections that the award was penal and excessive. He said he was prepared to make an order enforcing it as a judgment of the court.
Process and Industrial Developments Limited and P&ID Nigeria Limited pleaded guilty to 11 charges brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, including fraud, unlicensed dealing in petroleum products and tax evasion, Channels Television reported. Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered the companies' operations closed and P&ID Nigeria Limited wound up, with its assets forfeited to the federal government.
Nigeria filed its challenge to the awards under section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996, alleging they were obtained by fraud, the Court of Appeal recorded. The application was made years after the usual time limit and needed an extension of time.
Sir Ross Cranston, sitting as a High Court judge, extended the time for Nigeria to challenge the awards under sections 67 and 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996, finding a strong prima facie case of fraud, Pinsent Masons Out-Law reported. The Lawyer described the extension as unprecedented, and the challenge went on to trial.
Sir Ross Cranston ordered the release of a 200 million dollar guarantee Nigeria had given as security for a stay of execution, rejected P&ID's request to raise the security and ordered costs against P&ID, Arise News reported.
The EFCC re-arraigned Grace Taiga, former director of legal services at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, on nine charges including accepting bribes and money laundering, Channels Television reported. She pleaded not guilty and was released to her lawyer pending a bail ruling.
The trial of Nigeria's challenge opened before Mr Justice Robin Knowles and ran on sitting days until 9 March 2023, according to the judgment. Nigeria alleged bribery and perjury across the arbitral process. P&ID called Nigeria's case false and dishonest.
Robin Knowles J upheld Nigeria's challenge under section 68(2)(g). He found that P&ID co-founder Michael Quinn, who died in 2015, gave false evidence that omitted bribes paid to Grace Taiga in December 2009 and March 2010, that P&ID kept paying her during the arbitration, and that P&ID kept more than 40 of Nigeria's internal legal documents it received, the Court of Appeal summarised.
President Bola Tinubu, in a statement issued by his spokesman, welcomed the ruling, The Guardian (Nigeria) reported. The paper carried no statement from P&ID.
After a consequentials hearing on 8 December 2023, Nairametrics reported that the court had ordered P&ID to pay Nigeria 20 million pounds within 28 days. The judge's order of 21 December 2023 required P&ID to pay Nigeria's costs, assessed on the standard basis rather than the indemnity basis Nigeria sought, with an interim payment of 20 million pounds on account by 5 January 2024, the Court of Appeal later recorded.
Knowles J made an order setting aside the awards in whole and refused P&ID leave to appeal under section 68(4), the Court of Appeal recorded. Global Arbitration Review reported that a Nigerian spokesperson said the decision drew a final end to the matter.
James Nolan, a British director linked to P&ID who stopped attending his Abuja trial in 2022, was reportedly re-arrested in Italy in January 2024 but has not been extradited to Nigeria, BusinessDay reported.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu struck out the EFCC money laundering charge against Grace Taiga after her lawyer presented her death certificate, the Political Economist reported.
The Court of Appeal granted P&ID permission to appeal but dismissed its appeal against Knowles J's order that it pay Nigeria's costs, about 44.1 million pounds unassessed, in sterling rather than naira, holding that Nigeria was invoiced and paid its lawyers in sterling.
The Court of Appeal refused an application by Seamus Andrew, a P&ID director and solicitor, for permission to appeal the judge's critical findings about his conduct, refusing relief from sanctions because the application was out of time and saying the appeal would have failed anyway, Legal Futures and Gazette Nigeria reported. Knowles J had said he would refer him to the solicitors and bar regulators. Andrew said he was confident he would be vindicated.
The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed P&ID's appeal, holding that the judge did not err in ordering costs in sterling because Nigeria was billed in and paid its lawyers in sterling.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Nigeria's appeal against a stay of its application for a third party costs order against VR Global Partners LP, a related company and the founder of the VR Capital group, which funded P&ID, until Nigeria's costs are assessed in detail. The court recorded that P&ID did not pay the 20 million pound interim payment on time and that Nigeria had since received about 23.7 million pounds including interest, funded by the respondents.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu convicted James Nolan in his absence, and the P&ID linked Micad Project City Services Ltd, on charges including money laundering, forgery and obtaining by false pretence brought by the EFCC in 2022, BusinessDay and Nairametrics reported. One count was struck out because the alleged offence predated the 2011 money laundering law. Sentencing awaits Nolan's arrest, and the court had ordered the arrest of Adam Quinn, who remains at large, the outlets said.
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Courts and Tribunals Judiciary · judiciary.uk Courts and Tribunals Judiciary · judiciary.ukLast updated 1 November 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.