In a landmark decision delivered on 22 October 2025, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, dismissing an appeal by Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) and affirming that Nigeria is entitled to recover £44 million in legal costs in sterling rather than in naira.
Background: The P&ID Dispute
The ruling stems from a long-running arbitration battle between Nigeria and P&ID over a 2010 gas supply and processing agreement. Under the contract, Nigeria was to provide “wet gas” that P&ID would process into lean gas for power generation. The project never took off — Nigeria did not supply gas, and P&ID never built the processing plant.
In 2017, an arbitral tribunal awarded P&ID US$6.6 billion in damages, which later grew to over US$11 billion with interest. Nigeria challenged the award, alleging fraud, bribery, and misuse of confidential documents by P&ID.
In October 2023, the UK Commercial Court voided the arbitral award, agreeing that it had been obtained through fraud and public policy violations, and ordered P&ID to pay Nigeria’s legal costs.
The Supreme Court’s Ruling
P&ID later appealed, contesting the currency in which those costs were to be paid. The Supreme Court — led by Lord Reed and a panel of justices — unanimously ruled that Nigeria should receive its legal costs in sterling, as the expenses had been incurred and billed in that currency.
