Greenville LNG, A Top Gas Company Known For Breaching Contracts And Taking Chances, Is Currently Facing Another Multi-billion Dollar Lawsuit
By: People’s Voice Nigeria | News
Dissatisfied with the judgement, On January 27, 2021, IEC filed a petition to vacate the award in New York state court, but the court rejected IEC’s arguments.
“In short, due to the strong deference owed to the decisions of arbitrators, the court is compelled to reject IEC’s arguments and confirm the award,” the court ruled.
Poor ethics / underhanded business practices
It is believed that the posture of the company and its record of breaching contracts are due to its owner’s secretive and shady business activities. Prior to setting up Greenville, Eddy Van Den Broeke ran ASCA Bitumen in 1996 and grew the company into a giant monopoly with over 90% of the Nigerian market by 2015.
Through this position, he was famed for holding everyone to ransom through alleged arbitrary price increases and artificial scarcity, amongst others. Eddy Broeke’s family was one of six of Belgium’s wealthiest families that featured in the Panama Papers, a cross-border investigation that revealed a list of thousands of people who channeled funds to tax havens.
“The family of Eddy Van Den Broeke, who turned the Eres company into an international player, is also mentioned.” “Eddy Van Den Broeke is identified as the sole beneficiary of at least five offshore companies in the BVI,” the ICIJ report read.
Eddy was named in the Panama Papers for having used an extensive network of shell companies to hide his funds and avoid government oversight.
Another multi-million dollar breach of contract suit is looming
Our investigations also revealed that recently, BUA, which is one of Greenville’s largest clients, is set to allegedly sue Greenville for 50 billion Naira for a possible breach of contract and reneging on its obligation to supply gas to its businesses in the far north.
According to sources, this dispute is the result of Greenville LNG reneging on their contract with BUA to supply gas and also increasing prices arbitrarily despite the contractually agreed oil-indexed pricing for any changes in price.
Industry watchers have claimed that Greenville is trying to take advantage of its near monopoly in the domestic trucked LNG market, hence their habit of entering into contracts and reneging on them after starting.
With Eddy and his companies’ history of reneging on contracts entered into with the Federal Government, partners, suppliers, communities, and clients, it is unlikely that Greenville LNG or its billionaire owner Eddy and Managing Director Ritu Sahajwalla would stop such behavior anytime soon.
Experts familiar with BUA’s history of ensuring its rights are enforced believe BUA will pursue this issue to a logical conclusion at the courts and till their rights are enforced.
