LAGOS, June 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Liquefied Natural Gascompany (Nigeria LNG) said on Tuesday it had gone to court toseek "judicial clarity" over levies it believes are unlawful, amonth after authorities blocked some of its ships from accessingthe Bonny terminal.
Nigeria LNG said it was now complying with a governmentdirective to pay freight levies to maritime security agencyNIMASA, but that it had protested that they did not apply to itunder the NLNG Act.
The row caused Nigeria LNG's exports to be delayed from May3 to May 5, when NIMASA blockaded its ships.
"Following this blockade incident ... the Federal Government(instructed) ... NLNG to pay the NIMASA levies. NLNG has thuscommenced instalment payment, under protest ... but withoutprejudice to its right to seek judicial interpretation in thecourt of law," spokesman Kudo Eresia-Eke said in a statement.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation owns 49 percentof Nigeria LNG with Shell holding 25.6 percent, Total 15 percent and Eni 10.4 percent.
Nigeria ships more than 250 cargoes of LNG a year,contributing around 7 percent of global supply and accountingfor 4 percent of GDP in Africa's second largest economy,according to NLNG, although it is sometimes disrupted bysabotage of Shell gas pipelines.
Buyers of Nigeria's LNG include Spain's Repsol,Italy's Enel, Britain's BG Group France's GDFSuez and Portugal's Galp.
"Nigeria LNG... still firmly believe in the rectitude oftheir earlier position that NLNG is duly protected by theprovisions of the NLNG Act against the payment (of the levies),"the statement said.
