Eni Suffers Defeat In Ghana’s Apex Court

By
Michael Creg Afful
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Ghana’s apex court has dismissed an application filed by Italian oil giant, ENI and Vitol seeking to overturn a High Court order asking them to escrow 30 per cent of the sale of crude oil from the Sankofa field.

The Italian oil and gas firm and its partner, Vitol, are in disagreement with Government of Ghana over a directive by the country’s Energy Ministry, asking Eni and indigenous upstream player, Springfield E&P to unitise the Sankofa field operated by Eni and Afina discovery operated by Springfield E&P.

According to the Ministry, the two blocks straddle hence the need to unitise to ensure revenue maximisation.

But Eni and its partner, Vitol, are not convinced that there is a basis for Sankofa offshore field and Afina discovery to be unitised and have since refused to adhere to the Energy Ministry’s directive.

Unhappy with what appears to be feet dragging, Springfield E&P filed a suit at a Commercial Court in Accra and in June this year the court ruled that 30 per cent of revenue from the Sankofa oilfield be placed in an escrow account pending the final determination of the case.

Interestingly, the ruling did not settle well with Eni and Vitol and so filed a case at the International Tribunal in London to challenge the Ghana Government directive.

Energynewsafrica.com understands that Ghana, through the Attorney General, has filed responses to reliefs being sought by Eni and its partner, Vitol.

Per the ruling by the apex court on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, it means  Eni and its partner, Vitol, have no option but to comply with the High Court ruling and retrospectively pay the 30 per cent from 25 June 2021 into the bank account.

Sankofa, which has been producing oil since 2017, is part of ENI’s Offshore Cape Three Points project off the Atlantic coast.

The project has reserves of roughly 500 million barrels of oil and 40 billion cubic metres of unassociated gas.

According to Springfield, the Afina block holds 1.5 billion barrels of oil and approximately 19.8 billion cubic metres of gas.

 

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com