Godwin Omoaka, SAN is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution Group.
He routinely appears as counsel in large commercial disputes before the major courts in Nigeria. He also acts as counsel in institutional and ad hoc commercial arbitrations involving corporates, state-owned enterprises and sovereigns.
He has been very active in recent crude entitlement and petroleum profits tax disputes between the Nigerian national oil company, NNPC, and many of its international oil company PSC counter parties.
He is a Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and a graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
A Selection Of Relevant Expertise
- Led the team that provided Nigerian law advice and support to JPMorgan Chase Bank. (JPM), through Freshfields, in the successful defence of legal proceedings commenced against JPM by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), relating to payments authorized by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) from its account with JPM for the controversial sale of OPL 245 to Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in 2011.
- Successfully represented Emerald Energy Resources Limited (Emerald), an oil exploration and production company, in a multi-million-dollar London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) arbitration seated in London and instituted by an international financial advisor over the payment of fees allegedly earned in assisting the client to procure investors and debt financing for the development of its oil block pursuant to three English law governed funding agreements.
- Representing Eroton in one of the largest oil spill claims in Nigeria. Specifically, we act for Eroton in a dispute where the claimants – representatives of a community – allege that a major crude oil spill occurred at Eroton’s four oil fields situate in the Cawthorne Communities during major repairs and general maintenance services carried on the field.
- Representing INT Towers in an action filed by the Claimants seeking, inter alia, an order for the refund of $23,363,960.00 being the total amount the Claimant allegedly paid to INT for the supply of crude oil, which product INT is equally alleged to have fraudulently and unlawfully refused to supply to the Claimant.
- Representing Halliburton’s Nigerian subsidiary in an action for the breach of contract of employment brought against it by Sunday Daniel (the Claimant), its former employee. The crux of the Claimant’s claim is that he was employed by Halliburton and subsequently accepted an offer of a live-in contract from Halliburton’s related entity in Saudi Arabia. Sequel to accepting the offer and relocating to Saudi Arabia with his family, his live-in contract was terminated. Consequently, the Claimant is claiming the total of sum of over US$31,971,823.57 (Thirty-One Million, Nine Hundred and Seventy-One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Three United States Dollars, Fifty-Seven Cent) as damages
- Led the team which advised International Engineering & Construction S.A. and Greenville Liquefied Natural Gas Co., Ltd inUS$600,000,000 arbitration arising out of the contract for the acquisition of two small scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants and related services from General Electric.
- Led the team that obtained an arbitral award in favour of Nigeria’s largest alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage brewer, the Heineken subsidiary, Nigerian Breweries Plc (NB) in a “take or pay” dispute arising from a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement.
- Led the team that represented Total Upstream Nigeria Limited in successfully resisting applications brought by Samsung Heavy Industries Limited to procure injunctions in aid of arbitration initiated by in breach of an agreement to arbitrate disputes arising out of or connected with the performance of the contract for the Engineering, Procurement, Supply, Construction and Commissioning of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Unit for EGINA project.
