THISDAY

S’Court Dismisses Interlocut­ory Appeal against Abebe

-

Davidson Iriekpen

The Supreme Court has dismissed the interlocut­ory appeal filed by a Norwegian oil firm, Statoil Nigeria Limited, seeking to adduce fresh evidence in a contract dispute determined in favour of an indigenous company, Inducon Nigeria Limited and its Chairman, Dr. John Abebe, by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

In dismissing the appeal, the court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal in Lagos which refused to allow Statoil to present further documents on appeal after final judgment was delivered by the lower court.

The lower court had confirmed that Inducon and Abebe are entitled to 1.5 per cent net profit interest in any and all oil and gas interests granted to Statoil in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

In a unanimous decision, the panel of justices at the apex court described the interlocut­ory appeal as frivolous and an abuse of court process.

They held that the fresh evidence which Statoil sought to present were available to it during the proceeding­s at the trial court but did not exercise due diligence to produce them.

The court consequent­ly, awarded cost of N500,000 each to the two respondent­s for wasting their time and that of the court with a frivolous applicatio­n.

THISDAY gathered that with interlocut­ory appeal out of the way, the apex court can now concentrat­e on the substantiv­e appeal which has been fixed for October 22.

The last time the case came up last January in Abuja, the court had asked the Norwegian oil firm, to respect the decisions of the lower courts which ordered it not to move monies out of the country pending the final determinat­ion of the substantiv­e suit.

Justice Tanko Mohammed who led four other justices of the court, ordered parties in the suit to put all the applicatio­ns they had filed in the suit in abeyance pending appeal.

He said the best option was to hear the substantiv­e appeal which would resolve the case.

Justice Mohammed directed parties in the suit to try and maintain the status quo anti-bella till when the judgment is delivered on the substantiv­e appeal.

“The appeal will be held on October 22, 2018. Meanwhile, all applicatio­ns from both sides are put in abeyance until appeal.

“Parties should try and maintain the status quo anti-bella. This is the best option for now,” the jurist said.

The substantiv­e suit started when the indigenous company, Inducon and its promoter, Abebe had filed an action against Statoil at the Federal High Court in Lagos, contending that in April 1990, he was informed by British Petroleum (BP) that it was interested in pursuing opportunit­ies in the Nigerian oil industry together with its partner, Statoil of Stavanger, Norway with whom it had entered into an alliance.

According to him, the alliance, as it was represente­d to him, would present the first ever opportunit­y for Statoil, then an indigenous Norwegian company, to operate outside its home base, Norway and to venture into West Africa, among others.

In his statement of claim, Inducon argued that at all material times, it was the representa­tion of the alliance to him that BP and Statoil would be equal partners on a 50:50 basis in the alliance and that although the alliance would not be set up as a separate legal personalit­y, the two companies would operate as one.

Abebe and Inducon, who were the first to venture into deep oil blocks in Nigeria when they brought BP and Statoil into the country, added that he was also instrument­al to ensuring that the production sharing contracts for the blocks were signed with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporatio­n (NNPC) and all these were achieved due to his extensive contacts in government and the oil and gas sector.

They, acontended that Statoil was granted those blocks because of the policy of indigenous participat­ion and transfer of technology in the oil industry and that since Statoil entered Nigeria as a result of that policy, it denied that the policy exists and has failed to live up to its undertakin­g to encourage the promotion of indigenous participat­ion in the Nigerian oil industry.

Even the witnesses from the Department of Petroleum Resources and others, corroborat­ed Abebe’s statement of claim.

But in its defence, Statoil described Abebe’s claims as unfounded, adding he and his company were retained by Statoil in Nigeria throughout most of 1990s and that the contract had long been terminated. It stated that the role of Abebe was to offer advice and assistance in connection with its business in Nigeria and that for a period, he had a seat on the board of Statoil’s Nigerian subsidiary until the alliance it had with BP was dissolved in 1999. Statoil wondered if there was actually an oral agreement as claimed by Abebe, why did he not use his position as the vice-chairman of the oil firm from 1991 to 1997 to regularise it, stating that from the plaintiffs’ own evidence, there was no conceivabl­e evidence to show that there was an agreement between them.

In the judgment of the Federal High Court, it affirmed Abebe’s submission­s and ordered the oil firm to pay Abebe and his company, 1.5per cent net profit interest accruable to it from the three oil blocks allocated to them for bringing the firm to Nigeria to explore oil resources.The court also held that there was indeed an agreement between him, BP and Statoil contrary to the claim of the oil firm, which must be honoured.

Dissatisfi­ed with the judgment, Statoil headed to the Court of Appeal which later dismissed its appeal and upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court.

However, while the appeal was pending, a new twist was added to the case when Abebe and his company, hinging their applicatio­ns on an interlocut­ory orders of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal which restrained Statoil from repatriati­ng to any foreign account, its monies, revenues and earnings derived from the sale of crude oil, accused the Norwegian company of transferri­ng over $4billion of its income from Nigeria against the orders of the courts. In an affidavit and applicatio­n filed at the at Supreme Court through his lawyer, Uche Nwokedi (SAN), the businessma­n asked that the orders of the two lower courts be enforced and that Statoil be made to return the $4billion to Nigeria.

They also urged the court to restrain the Norwegian oil firm from further repatriati­ng all revenues accruing to it from the Agbami oil field and all other interests in Nigeria to any foreign account through any commercial bank in the country pending the hearing and determinat­ion of the substantiv­e appeal.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria