ExxonMobil Corporation, Chevron Corporation, and Equinor ASA have said they will withdraw their lawsuits of about $3 billion, against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

 
According to court letters, dated August 22, seen by Bloomberg yesterday, the oil majors told two New York federal judges that they had agreed to settle with NNPC.
It added that the IOCs also agreed to terminate ongoing litigation once the new arrangements take effect.

The move comes 10 days after NNPC renewed oil production sharing contracts (PSCs) with the oil majors — after nearly three decades.

The national oil firm also resolved lingering disputes with the PSCs contractors.

According to Bloomberg, lawyers representing Equinor and Chevron asked the judge to suspend the case until the end of October “to allow sufficient time for the conditions to be satisfied and for the settlement agreement to become effective”.

The companies said once that is done, they “expect to withdraw this action”.
On their part, Exxon and Shell, in a separate letter, said they expect to withdraw the litigation after 60 days.

In 2017, Equinor and Chevron filed a suit in the US, asking a court to enforce a $1.1 billion award issued by an arbitration tribunal against NNPC in 2015.

Shell and Exxon initiated similar proceedings in New York in 2014 over a $1.8 billion arbitration award.

Both penalties followed allegations by the oil majors that the NNPC took crude beyond its entitlement under 1993 PSC contracts, designed to incentivise the companies to develop deep offshore blocks.

divinehand2003:
It is not wise to have issues with these mega oil companies. It better and safer to play by their rules for peace to rain.

judegreat:
Let peace just rain

kingphilip:
Them don threaten settle them?

divinehand2003:
It is not wise to have issues with these mega oil companies. It better and safer to play by their rules for peace to rain.

SmartPolician:
NNPC is a perfect replica of everything wrong with the Nigerian state. It makes one step forward and takes 5 steps backwards. 45 years after the NNPC was founded, we still depend on IOCs to help manage our crude oil exploration and production.

Nigeria has never been a serious country. In serious countries, the NNPC would be so big that it may be competing with the IOCs or ask them to return to their countries. In fact, the NNPC will be helping smaller African countries like Ghana, Gabon and Angola manage their crude oil resources.

Unfortunately, the big for nothing corporation just reports deficits every year and their GMDs earn fat salaries for declaring deficit every year. Like Peter Obi always says, it is high time we started running Nigeria like a proper business.

oluwaseyi0:


Even when the terms are not favourable to Nigeria? What type of slavery ass-licking is this

Play by their rules in our own country, shey you dey wyne me ni

jaytee01:


How will the corporation be successful when it is managed and populated mostly by barely literate aboki who would never have smelt such jobs in a merit driven private company?

This is also why the refineries are still "in operation" despite not refining a single litre of Petroleum products in years. All these places exist to provide juicy employment opportunities to people from a particular part of the country.

SmartPolician:


This has nothing to do with tribe.

There are many agencies that are in comma and are managed by Southerners.

For instance, we have seen how Niger Delta people use NDDC to do whatever they like.

The earlier we admit that an average Nigerian mins is corrupt (and that it has nothing to do with tribe), the better for us.