The United Kingdom (UK) Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Nigeria in its long-running legal battle with Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), confirming the country’s right to recover legal costs following the nullification of a controversial US$11 billion arbitration award.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Tuesday, 22 October 2025, a five-member panel of justices dismissed P&ID’s appeal and upheld the previous rulings of the High Court and Court of Appeal.
The justices affirmed that Nigeria’s legal costs should be paid in British pounds; the same currency in which they were billed and settled, rather than in Nigerian naira.
Nigeria is claiming a total of £44 million in legal expenses, with £20 million already ordered as an interim payment.
The Supreme Court found no error in the earlier judgment of Justice Robin Knowles, who had in 2023 set aside the $11 billion arbitral award after determining that it was obtained through fraud and corruption.
According to the court, the question of currency was a matter of discretion and not a right of entitlement.
P&ID had argued that Nigeria’s costs should have been assessed in naira, claiming the payments originated from a consolidated fund denominated in local currency.
The company alleged that Nigeria gained an undue financial advantage by converting the costs into pounds sterling.
However, the justices agreed with Nigeria’s position that its legal bills were paid from sterling-based accounts.
They further ruled that courts are not obliged to examine how litigants fund their legal representation, warning that such scrutiny could lead to "unnecessary and costly" disputes.
The panel also noted the practical difficulty of P&ID’s position, observing that Nigeria’s legal fees were paid through 116 separate invoices over a five-year period, meaning a retrospective conversion to naira would require 116 different exchange rates.
In their judgment, the justices clarified that while English courts are not restricted to issuing cost orders solely in pounds, the standard practice remains to award costs in the currency used for payment of legal fees.
Legal expert Hannah Ambrose, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, welcomed the ruling, describing it as "sensible and grounded in the proper understanding of costs orders as distinct from damages awards."
The P&ID case stems from a failed 2010 gas processing project in Nigeria. In 2017, an arbitral tribunal in London awarded P&ID US$11 billion after finding Nigeria liable for breaching a long-term contract.
However, in 2023, Justice Knowles set aside the award, declaring it had been secured through false evidence, bribery, and misuse of leaked government documents.
The judge also issued strong criticism of P&ID’s conduct and that of its former arbitration counsel, Seamus Andrew, whose later attempt to overturn the findings was dismissed by the UK Court of Appeal earlier this year.
Meanwhile, related proceedings continue in other jurisdictions.
In 2024, the British Virgin Islands High Court allowed a Chinese firm to attach funds owed by P&ID to Nigeria under the costs order, to recover a $70 million investment treaty award.
The Nigerian government has since reached a settlement in that matter.
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