Oil giant Trafigura has filed a case with Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Ghana’s Finance Minister, regarding an outstanding judgment obligation.
This warning follows Trafigura’s purchase of Regina House, a significant piece of real estate in London, following the government’s inability to pay a USD 134 million judgment pertaining to a cancelled power purchase deal.
In the event that payment is not received, the oil giant is threatening to confiscate state assets in South Africa.
The conflict stems from a UK tribunal’s decision on January 26, 2021, which determined that Ghana had broken its agreement when it ended its partnership with a foreign power business, GPGC, in 2018.
The panel granted GPGC USD 134 million in damages, which included arbitration costs and interest. However, the government has only made partial payments, leaving a sizeable amount unpaid, in spite of the tribunal’s explicit mandate.
Trafigura has been attempting to collect the outstanding sum for the last four years, which resulted in a judgment from a U.S. court that increased the original debt by USD111.4 million in interest.
The corporation filed a petition with the Finance Ministry on Monday, September 23, 2024, expressing irritation with the government’s protracted delays in resolving the issue. The petition demanded immediate payment and threatened legal action if its demands were not met.
The U.S. court verdict, which favored GPGC due to Ghana’s surrender of sovereign immunity and commitment to international arbitration, became even more complicated when Ghana failed to reply.
This has made the nation’s financial commitments worse and made it more difficult to pay off the debt.
Source: newsthemegh.com