Page 11 - AfrOil Week 06 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Nigeria’s Supreme Court rules for Equinor

in case over Agbami deepwater oilfield

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S Supreme Court ruled in favour of Abebe, for his part, had not commented
Norway’s Equinor last week in a long-running on the matter as of press time. Uche Nwokedi,
dispute over the disposition of revenues from an attorney for the Nigerian businessman,
Agbami, a deepwater oilfield formerly operated described the ruling as “a tough decision.” In a
by BP (UK). text message to a Bloomberg reporter, Nwokedi
Equinor has been fighting John Abebe, a said: “We will study it when we get a copy of
Nigerian oil consultant and businessman, in the the judgment and decide on our next course of
West African state’s court system for more than action.”
a decade. It lost the first round of the legal bat- The Supreme Court’s ruling is sure to be
tle in 2010, when a lower court ruled that it was good for Equinor’s bottom line. Agbami yields
obliged to uphold BP’s previous commitment to up to 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, and
pay Abebe 1.5% of its profits once Agbami began the Norwegian company has a 20.21% stake in
producing oil. the field. As such, it stands to earn around $2mn
The lower court explained that decision by per day from its share of total production, and
pointing to the terms of the partnership that the meeting Abebe’s demand would have cut into
two IOCs made before the UK-based super-ma- its profits. ™
jor exited Nigeria in the late 1990s. BP made that
pledge prior to its departure in exchange for
Abebe’s help in securing the necessary licences,
and the lower court ruled that Equinor had
inherited it.
The Norwegian company did seek to over-
turn the decision, on the grounds that it had
already paid Abebe for his services and had not
made a commitment similar to that of BP. How-
ever, its appeal was dismissed in 2012.
Now, almost nine years later, it has scored a
victory. Erik Haaland, a spokesman for Equinor,
acknowledged this, saying in a statement: “We
are pleased with this decision, which is in line
with our position as well.” Agbami is a deepwater oilfield (Image: Africa Oil Corp.)

ANPG comments on environmental

risks of onshore exploration plans

ANGOLA ANGOLA’S National Agency of Petroleum, Gas Okavango Basin in Cuando Cubango, Cunene
and Biofuels (ANPG) has downplayed concerns and Moxico provinces and of the inner Kassanje
about the environmental risks of plans to assess Basin in Malange and Uige provinces, it said.
the potential of onshore fields in the two sedi- The majority of the total area slated for
mentary basins. exploration does not lie within protected areas,
In a statement dated February 8, the agency as implied by some media reports, ANPG said.
said it was preparing to tender contracts for sec- Rather, it explained, only 20% of the total con-
tions of the two basins in line with a presidential sists of protected areas entitled to extra measures
decree that was signed last October to endorse of environmental conservation.
the government’s Hydrocarbon Exploration These protected areas, it continued, were
Strategy 2020-2025. The strategy calls for the shown to lie within the aforementioned basins
exploration of areas covering around 520,000 during an aero-gravimetric survey conducted
square km, including sections of the Etosha/ during the first stage of exploration in 2010.

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