An Irish-owned company is due to ask the British courts to enforce a $9 billion (€8 billion) award against Nigeria’s government in a dispute over a gas processing plant that was never built.

Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), a UK-registered firm linked to Dublin-based Industrial Consultants International, agreed in 2010 to build a gas refinery in Nigeria to fuel power plants for the African state.

However, the project never went ahead and P&ID and Nigeria’s government entered arbitration in 2012. The company was awarded $6.6 billion in damages in 2015 as a result. Subsequent interest charges have increased this to around $9 billion.

The pair are due before the British commercial court next week where P&ID will seek to have the award enforced while the Nigerians will seek to have it set aside.

Industrial Consultants director, Brendan Cahill, founder of P&ID with his late business partner, Michael Quinn, told African media recently that the company intended to pursue the case.

However, he stressed that P&ID was “open to a settlement on a reasonable basis” if it found someone in the Nigerian government willing to help resolve the dispute.

The Nigerian government issued a statement earlier this year contesting the size of the award.

It's funny that they are dragging the government to court for $9bn. I wonder what sort of contract was signed in the first place
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/irish-owned-company-to-seek-9bn-award-against-nigerian-government-1.3914842