The International Arbitration Tribunal in the Eni & Vitol v. Ghana & GNPC arbitration has issued its Final Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Positively for Ghana, the Tribunal denied Claimants their monetary damages. The Claimants initially claimed 7 billion dollars, but they subsequently reviewed it to $915 million plus interest by the end of the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tribunal also dismissed the Claimants\u2019 claims against GNPC in their entirety. In addition, the Tribunal dismissed the Claimants\u2019 request that the Tribunal declare that Ghana breached the Petroleum Agreement by \u201crefusing to withdraw or prevent reliance by third parties on the Unitisation Directives.\u201d The Tribunal also dismissed the Claimant\u2019s request that Ghana notify the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Ghana that the Unitisation Directives were issued in breach of the Petroleum Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tribunal, however, found that \u201cin the circumstances in which they were issued,\u201d the Unitisation Directives breached the Petroleum Agreement. That is, the unitisation was contrary to the applicable regulations and thereby breached Article 26(2) of the Petroleum Agreement. Nonetheless, the Tribunal affirmed Ghana\u2019s right to the authority to unitise oil fields to achieve efficient exploitation of the deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding allocation of fees and costs, the Tribunal held that since both Parties had prevailed in some ways, both Parties would be required to pay their own legal fees and costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n