Facts:

The plaintiff is a Nigerian company engaged in the exploration of oil and gas while the respondent is the minister in the Federal Republic of Nigeria charged with executive powers supervising the ministry of petroleum resources. The plaintiff had been granted an oil prospecting license OPL 246 in 1998 of 1000 sq miles and had applied to the defendant to convert the acreage to an oil mining license OML in August 2003. The Department of Petroleum Resources of the ministry advised that part of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) derivable from OPL 246 fell within the Special Regime Area (SRA) which is included in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. Following this advice, the applicant voluntarily without compensation relinquished the SRA Area. DPR in February 2005 approved the conversion of the OPL 246 to OML was proper and should be approved. Stating:

“We refer to your letter of March 8, 2004 requesting for the conversion of OPL 246 to an OML and wish to convey the Government approval for conversion for OPL 246 to one OML as sketched.

The new block is designated as OML 130″