Facts:

By an originating motion filed before the Federal High Court, Lagos, the applicant is seeking to set aside the Final Award made on 23 December 2024 and the Addendum thereto dated 8 January 2025, both rendered in favour of the Respondents by the Sole Arbitrator, Mr. Charles Adeyemi Candide-Johnson, SAN. The dispute arose from a contract between the parties for the provision of off shore drilling services using the Respondents’ off shore mobile drilling unit, Noble Blackford Dolphin, in connection with the Respondents’ Nigerian Oil Mining Lease 120 (OML 120) field. The issues in contention related to the performance and non-performance of mutual obligations under the contract, as well as the legal status of certain aspects of the putative agreements.

It was the case of the Applicant that the arbitral award was contrary to the public policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and therefore liable to be set aside pursuant to section 55(3)(b)(ii) of the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023, on the ground that the 1st Respondent being a foreign company, had carried on business in Nigeria in contravention of sections 78(1) and (2), 42, and 729(1)(c) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020. The Applicant contended that the 1st Respondent directly performed contractual obligations in Nigeria, issued invoices and notices, received payments, and prepared daily drilling reports in furtherance of its operations, all without acting through its registered Nigerian subsidiary.

The Respondents, on the other hand, maintained that the 1st Respondent had duly taken steps to incorporate the 2nd Respondent and that the provisions of CAMA relating to the incorporation of foreign companies constitute a general law which, in this instance, is overridden by the specific provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010. They argued that the NOGICD Act is the applicable legislation, being a special law that expressly permits foreign companies to engage in business within the Nigerian oil and gas industry through partnerships, alliances, or cooperative arrangements with Nigerian companies, thereby dispensing with the requirement of separate incorporation under CAMA.