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UKSC clarifies currency of English costs orders: sterling or billing currency; costs not compensatory; funding arrangements irrelevant – P&ID v Nigeria [2025] UKSC 36

Published on: 22 October 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert
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Supreme Court upholds costs award in sterling (Process & Industrial Developments Ltd v The Federal Republic of Nigeria) Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (Appellant) v The Federal Republic of Nigeria (Respondent) [2025] UKSC 36

Background

This appeal focuses on a costs order arising from Nigeria’s successful bid to set aside two arbitral awards made in favour of P&ID, and, in particular, whether Nigeria’s legal costs were properly awarded in sterling rather than naira, its national currency. P&ID, the appellant, had contracted with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Nigeria. In the third year of the contract, P&ID commenced arbitration against Nigeria. The tribunal subsequently issued two awards in 2015 and 2017 totalling $6.6bn, plus interest at 7% (the Arbitration Awards), for damages for repudiatory breach of contract. In 2018, P&ID sought to enforce the Arbitration Awards in the Commercial Court in England. Nigeria successfully opposed enforcement and attacked the Arbitration Awards on the basis that they had been procured by fraud and that both the awards, and the manner of their procurement, offended public policy. The trial lasted eight weeks in the Commercial Court and Nigeria...

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