18 April 2014, Lagos – The lingering litigation over a $3.8 billion Egina oil platform project between the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics, LADOL and Samsung/Total has deepened, as the oil and gas service provider insists that it has legal rights to undertake the local content aspect of the job.
The contract awarded to Samsung Heavy Industry and LADOL by Total for the integration of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform to be cited at LADOL base in Lagos, assumed litigation following alleged schemes by Samsung to exclude the indigenous firm from the juicy project.
Counsel to LADOL, Professor Fidelis Oditah (QC, SAN), had earlier sought 19 reliefs against Samsung and other defendants before Justice Chukwujekwe Aneke, of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, asking for a declaration that the contract awarded by Total to Samsung on or about 15 March 2013 was subject to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010.
In his submission at the hearing Wednesday, Oditah noted that since the Nigerian Content Act 2010 was enacted for the benefit of all Nigerians, his client being a Nigerian entity had the right to sue for local content breaches, wherein the relevant government agency failed to do so.
Oditah was responding to earlier submission by Counsel to the First Defendant (Total), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), that LADOL being a ‘Contractual beneficiary’ in the contentious project lacked the locus standi to sue for alleged local content breaches.
– Godwin Oritse, Vanguard
