OpeOluwani Akintayo
02 April 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc has announced a settlement between its wholly owned subsidiary, Newton Energy Limited and Crestar Natural Resources Limited over the deposit of US$20.5 million currently held in an escrow account.
Seplat is an indigenous oil and gas company listed on both the Nigeria Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.
The litigation filed in the English High Court has now been settled between the parties, a statement by the company said.
Under the terms of the settlement, the escrow monies will be split into two, with US$10.0 million going to Seplat and US$10.5 million to Crestar.
The case has been in court since January 2017.
Last year, Seplat announced the commencement of proceedings in the English High Court against its wholly owned subsidiary Newton Energy Limited by Crestar Natural Resources Limited relating to the deposit of US$20.5 million held in an escrow account.
According to the firm, the monies were related to the potential acquisition of an interest in Oil Mining License, OML 25 by Crestar, which Newton had an option to invest into, but were put into escrow in July 2015 until an agreement was reached with Crestar and Newton on final terms of the deal.
The acquisition of an interest in OML 25 was initially identified in 2014 at which time the group (Seplat and its subsidiaries) placed a sum of US$453million as a deposit towards the investment.
However, after several delays, US$368 million was returned to the group in July 2015.
Certain events then led to renewed efforts by the consortium to secure the asset and to the group providing the escrow monies.
Furthermore, the group had said it paid US$11 million to Crestar for past costs while US$45 million deposit remained with Newton.
