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Bloomberg
A Nigerian court suspended the government’s cancellation of eight oil concessions, hampering the state’s ability to include the withdrawn permits in a bidding round opened this week.
A judge at the Federal High Court in Lagos granted an injunction, preventing the government from re-awarding the eight permits before a lawsuit challenging the legality of the terminations is resolved. Ten companies, including closely held Bayelsa Oil Co Ltd and Del-Sigma Petroleum Nigeria Ltd, filed the case against Petroleum Resources Minister Timipre Sylva and Attorney General Abubakar Malami.
The Department of Petroleum Resources opened a tender for 57 onshore and shallow-water oil blocks to local
investors — the first auction of so-called marginal fields since 2003.
While most of the available fields are those that oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc chose not to develop, others were recently revoked from Nigerian companies allocated them in the previous auction.
The DPR is restrained “from taking any further steps or action†to sell on the fields to new investors and the plaintiffs can continue operations on their assets “pending the determination of the substantive suit,†the order said.
The companies argue their concessions are valid for the remaining lifespans of their fields.
The DPR revoked 11 concessions with immediate effect on April 6, stating the companies had failed to develop the fields and bring them to production.