The District Court of Harris County, Texas, United States, has ruled that Chevron and BNP Paribas should produce documents relating to the award of Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) by Chevron.
They were directed to produce any correspondent among any officers, employees or agents of some companies mentioning or discussing the bidding process, the OMLs or Brittania-U, týhe plaintiff.
The defendants in the suit numbered 2014-15279 are Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited; Amni Internatonal Petroleum Production Services, Inc; Tunde Afolabi; Belema Oil Producing Limited; Belema Oil Producing Corporation, LLC, and Jack-Rich Tein, Jr.
The order followed Brittania-U’s notice of intent to subpoena documents from Chevron and BNP Paribas, which are non-parties to the suit.
They are to produce any correspondence among or between the agents of BNP Paribas, Amni, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Belema Oil, Chevron, as well as all documents submitted in the bidding process.
They are also to produce any documents containing financial information regarding Brittania-U obtained by them from any source, including correspondence between them and the Nigerian government or state discussing the bidding process.
Also subpoenaed were any contract or agreement between Belema Oil, Amni or Seplat and BNP Paribas or Chevron executed in the last five years.
Brittania-U sued the defendants over the Oil Mining Leases numbered 52, 53 and 55, sold by Chevron.
Brittania-U had also taken the matter to the Supreme Court of Nigeria over the ruling of an Appeal Court, which vacated an order of interlocutory injunction by a high court restraining Chevron and Seplat from concluding any deal on the oil leases.
Chevron had offered for sale OMLs 52, 53 and 55 and as usual invited bids from interested firms.
The sale of the assets became controversial after Chevron allegedly failed to make a public announcement of a winner, a reserve bidder and unsuccessful bids.
It then allegedly turned its back on the highest bidder, Brittania-U Nigeria Limited, and began to deal with Seplat behind the scene.
Brittania-U went to court to contest Chevron’s action of not declaring it winner after it posted a $1.67 billion bid for the three assets, an amount later revised to $1.015 billion after both companies’ officials met in Houston, United States. Seplat was said to have posted a bid of $630 million for the same assets.