The United Kingdom Supreme Court has ordered Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited to pay up to £44 million in legal costs to Nigeria, bringing an end to a long-running legal battle over a controversial $11 billion arbitration award.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on October 22, the Supreme Court dismissed P&ID’s appeal and upheld earlier rulings that Nigeria’s legal costs must be paid in pounds sterling rather than in naira. The court held that costs awards are not compensatory but represent statutory indemnities for expenses incurred in litigation.
The dispute stemmed from a 2023 ruling by the UK Commercial Court, which found that P&ID had obtained gas processing contracts with Nigeria through bribery and fraud, rendering the original $11 billion arbitration award null and void.
The apex court rejected P&ID’s argument that paying costs in pounds would give Nigeria a “windfall” due to the depreciation of the naira, insisting that the expenses were incurred and paid in sterling. A panel led by Lord Reed, President of the Supreme Court, ruled that legal costs “must be awarded in the same currency in which they were billed and paid.”
The case effectively closes a decade-long legal saga that began in 2010, when P&ID claimed Nigeria breached a gas supply contract. In 2019, the company won a $9.6 billion arbitration award against Nigeria, a judgment that threatened to cripple the country’s economy and foreign reserves.
Concerned by the risk of losing billions, then-Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele secured President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to finance and coordinate Nigeria’s legal defence. Working alongside the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the team engaged UK law firm Mishcon de Reya to challenge the award on grounds of fraud.
After years of proceedings, the UK Commercial Court ruled in 2023 that the arbitration was tainted by bribery and misconduct, reversing the award and saving Nigeria from an $11 billion liability. The judgment also found that P&ID’s lawyers, Trevor Burke KC and Seamus Andrews, had improperly retained Nigeria’s privileged documents and were motivated by personal financial interests, potentially worth up to £3 billion.
The Supreme Court’s latest decision confirms Nigeria’s right to recover £44.2 million in legal costs incurred through 116 invoices between November 2019 and November 2024 on a standard basis.
In its ruling, the court emphasised that costs awards are “not intended to compensate for loss” but to indemnify reasonable litigation expenses, warning that adopting P&ID’s position could encourage “disproportionate and expensive satellite litigation.”
The judgment also reaffirmed that courts should not investigate how litigants finance their legal fees, as such inquiries would complicate and prolong proceedings unnecessarily.
With this final ruling, the UK Supreme Court has brought closure to one of the most consequential legal disputes in Nigeria’s modern history one that once threatened to bankrupt Africa’s largest economy but has now ended in victory and vindication for the country.
