The tribunal was reconstituted on January 13, 2022, with the claimant’s appointment of J. William Rowley. Mr. Rowley will be sitting alongside Laurent Levy (chair) and Kamal Hossain (respondent’s appointee).
An ICSID tribunal in Eni International et al. v. Nigeria has been reconstituted, following the resignation of the claimant’s original appointee, Stanimir Alexandrov.
The tribunal was reconstituted on January 13, 2022, with the claimant’s appointment of J. William Rowley. Mr. Rowley will be sitting alongside Laurent Levy (chair) and Kamal Hossain (respondent’s appointee).
As previously reported, the claimant turned to arbitration under the Netherlands-Nigeria bilateral investment treaty in 2020, as part of a multi-forum battle concerning a dispute over Nigeria’s refusal to convert an oil prospecting license (OPL 245) into a mining license, among allegations of corruption.
After the initial tribunal was constituted in July of 2021, the tribunal ruled on the claimant’s request for provisional measures (in September of 2021), as well as the respondent’s request that quantum issues be heard in a separate phase (in October of 2021). Both these decisions remain undisclosed.
On December 8, 2021, Nigeria filed a proposal to disqualify Mr. Alexandrov, who resigned on December 12, 2021.
Eni is represented by Three Crowns in London, Paris, and Washington, D.C., as well as Aluko & Oyebode in Abuja. Nigeria relies on counsel from Afe Babalola & Co in Abuja, together with Squire Patton Boggs in London, Paris, and Milan.