The International Arbitration Tribunal has dismissed most of the demands made in a suit filed against the Government of Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) by Eni Ghana Exploration and Production Limited and Vitol Upstream Ghana Limited.

The Tribunal denied Eni and Vitol their monetary damages, which initially stood at $7 billion but were later reduced to $915 million plus interest by the end of the proceedings.

The Tribunal rejected the Claimants’ request to declare that Ghana breached the Petroleum Agreement by “refusing to withdraw or prevent reliance by third parties on the Unitisation Directives.”

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The Tribunal also dismissed the Claimants’ request for Ghana to notify the High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court of Ghana that the Unitisation Directives were issued in breach of the Petroleum Agreement.

However, the Tribunal did find that “in the circumstances in which they were issued,” the Unitisation Directives breached the Petroleum Agreement.

According to the Tribunal, the unitisation was contrary to the applicable regulations, thereby breaching Article 26(2) of the Petroleum Agreement.

Despite this, the Tribunal affirmed Ghana’s sovereign right to unitise oil fields to achieve efficient exploitation of the deposits.

Regarding the allocation of fees and costs, the Tribunal determined that since both Parties had prevailed in some respects, each would be required to pay their own legal fees and costs.

However, the Tribunal held that Ghana should pay 50 per cent of the amount paid by claimants to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, which amounts to €189,000. 

The claimants were denied any interest in respect of the costs of €189,000.

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