By Libby George
LAGOS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A federal court in Lagos has
issued an injunction barring Royal Dutch Shell's
Nigerian subsidiares from withdrawing money at 20 local banks
until it ringfences potential damages in a lawsuit brought
against the oil major by Aiteo Eastern E&P.
Aiteo is seeking about $4 billion in total over alleged
problems with the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) pipeline it
bought from the Anglo-Dutch group in 2015 and over claims Shell
undercounted its oil exports.
Court documents seen by Reuters show that Aiteo is seeking
compensation over what it says was the poor condition of the
pipeline and associated lost oil sales.
Aiteo also accuses Shell of deliberate improper metering of
the Nigerian company's oil exports from the Bonny Light
terminal. It is seeking $2.7 billion over the pipeline deal plus
$1.28 billion for lost oil sales, the court documents show.
A spokesman for the Shell Petroleum Development Company
(SPDC) said the allegations are "factually incorrect".
"SPDC is working to secure an expeditious discharge of the
freezing injunction, which we believe was obtained by Aiteo
without any valid basis," an SPDC spokesman said.
Aiteo declined to comment on an ongoing legal case.
The lawsuit is latest in a string of legal headaches for the
biggest international oil company operating in Nigeria, Africa's
biggest oil exporter.
A British court last week cleared the way for local
communities to sue the company over oil spills in the West
African nation, and last month Shell lost a case brought in the
Netherlands by Nigerian farmers and fisherman over pollution
claims.
Shell, meanwhile, has initiated international arbitration
proceedings against Nigeria over a case relating to oil spills
that took place during the 1967-1970 Biafran war.
(Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos and Tife
Owolabi in Yenagoa
Editing by David Goodman)
