Trafigura Demands Payment of Remaining Judgement Debt

Singaporean oil firm Trafigura is threatening to seize Ghana’s assets in South Africa if the West African country fails to comply with the agreed payment schedule for a judgment debt awarded them for a contract termination.

In a letter addressed to the Finance Minister, Hon Mohammed Amin Adam, the company said it had started the paper and legal work in South Africa as the government had failed to honour his side of the payment terms.

“Further to our letter of September 20th 2024, to which we have not yet received a response, we can confirm that we have today filed the relevant papers to commence enforcement of the arbitral award in South Africa. As a courtesy, we have enclosed in Annex 1 the filings with this letter as service on the Government of Ghana through diplomatic channels may take some months.

“In addition to the 16 banks based in the United States that GPGC has subpoenaed (as evidenced in the attached Annex 2), we plan to issue further subpoenas to US-based corporations with ties to the Government of Ghana later this week, with further action to follow.”

Ghana has a week to execute the settlement agreement or face further enforcement actions, it warned.

Judgment Debt
The Power Purchase Agreement was signed during the Mahama administration in June 2015 to provide 107MW of power and to be completed by mid-2018 but before 2018, the contract was terminated by the Akufo-Addo administration.

Trafigura’s subsidiary, the Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) sought arbitration through the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) tribunal in the United Kingdom (UK) and subsequently obtained a ruling in its favour in 2021 with a judgment debt of US $134 million against Ghana.

Deferment in honouring the judgment debt put Ghana’s High Commission building in the United Kingdom, the commissioner’s residence, the Ghana International Bank building, and other properties at risk.

In a letter dated November 14, 2023, former Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta authorized ₵230, 598,000.00 equivalent to US$20,000,000 as part-payment of the judgment debt.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini