ENI Ghana, Vitol receive positive decision from international arbitral tribunal
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Eni Ghana Exploration and Production and Vitol Upstream Ghana have received a positive
decision from an international arbitral tribunal regarding their unitisation dispute with the
Republic of Ghana, ruling in favour of their long-standing opposition to the Ministry of
Energy’s unitisation directives.
The international arbitral tribunal has concluded that the unitisation directives were wrong
and unlawful and that Republic of Ghana’s actions breached Ghanaian law and the terms
of the OCTP Petroleum Agreement. The ruling is also without prejudice to Eni and Vitol’s
right to claim damages if the wrongful directives are henceforth enforced.
Eni Ghana and Vitol remain committed to Ghana and to the OCTP project, a flagship project
backed by the World Bank, which supplies Ghana a significant share of its gas for domestic
use. Eni and Vitol have consistently maintained their willingness to assess the case for and
against unitisation if the process were conducted fairly, transparently and in line with best
international practices and Ghanaian law. However, they oppose the process adopted by
the Republic of Ghana because of its failure to meet the applicable legal and industry
requirements.
Eni and Vitol value their relationship with the Republic of Ghana and hope this award will
help bring this dispute to a close, thereby allowing all parties to focus on the continued
development of Ghana’s oil and gas sector.
BACKGROUND
Eni and Vitol contested the actions of the Republic of Ghana, which had sought to compel
a unitisation of the producing Sankofa oil field in OCTP with an adjacent discovery in
WCTP2, the Afina discovery, which has not been appraised or tested.