A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has vacated an order freezing the bank accounts belonging to an oil company, Petralon 54 Limited, and its parent company, Petralon Energy Limited.
The court had earlier this month directed 18 commercial banks in Nigeria to freeze and place a ‘Post No Debt’ on any sum of money standing to the credit accounts belonging to Petralon 54 Limited, Petralon Energy Limited, and Tako E&P Solutions Limited, for their alleged failure to declare the total quantity of crude sold, the amount it was sold, and the royalty paid to the Nigerian government.
The court gave the order, following a suit marked FHC/L/CS/1686/22, filed by Eurafric Energy Limited against the three companies and the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission.
Eurafric Energy had approached the court, praying it to bar operations and transactions on the bank accounts belonging to Petralon 54, Petralon Energy, and Tako E&P Solution, on the grounds that the three oil companies did not declare the total quantity of crude sold, the amount it was sold and the royalty paid to the government in a Federal Government agency transaction.
Delivering a ruling on October 14 in a motion filed by Petralon 54, the presiding judge, Justice Daniel Osiagor, held that the court was misled to grant an order freezing the company’s accounts, which it subsequently reversed to lift the order, according to a statement.
The court considered Petralon 54’s affidavit in response to Eurafric’s counter affidavit deposed to on October12, 2022 and the reply address in support of the motion to set aside the exparte orders.
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Justice Osiagor, in his consolidated judgment, ruled that ‘exhibit volte face F’ exhibited in the plaintiff’s counter affidavit and ‘exhibit G’ exhibited in the defendant’s counter clearly indicated that the plaintiff (Eurafric Energy) gave consent for a loan of $2.2 million to be obtained, thereby making it a party to the debt repayment efforts to the holding bank, which the funds it sought to freeze pertained to, but this fact was not disclosed to the court before the restraining order on the defendant’s accounts.
The banks affected by the order of court are Access Bank Plc, Ecobank Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Jaiz Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Plc, Polaris Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Globus Bank Plc, Titan Bank Plc, Providus Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Standard Chartered Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.
The statement said until June 28, 2022, when Petralon 54 became the sole operator of the Dawes Island Field, having been granted Petroleum Prospecting License No. 259 (PPL 259) by the Federal Government, in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, the plaintiff (Eurafric Energy), Petralon 54, and Tako E&P Solutions were joint venture partners.
It said the JV arrangement covered operation at the Dawes Island Marginal Field initially awarded to the plaintiff (Eurafric Energy), which was revoked owing to non-performance.
Earlier in the transaction, the JV had secured a loan of $2.2 million from Access Bank for operational activities, with crude sale proceeds domiciliation agreement with the bank to offset the JV indebtedness.
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