Ghanaian oil company, Springfield Energy, accused the commodity giant, Glencore, of breaking the West African country’s law by storing oil at a depot without a licence before transporting it.
Glencore says it will seek legal redress in Ghana although it lost a ruling in the UK High Court last week.
Ghanaian oil company, Springfield Energy, accused the commodity giant, Glencore, of breaking the West African country’s law by storing oil at a depot without a licence before transporting it.
A spokesman for Springfield, which had a contract to buy oil from Glencore, said: “We strongly believe this is a matter of Ghana law and consequently a matter for Ghana’s courts.”
Deputy High Court judge Nicholas Vinehall QC ruled in Glencore’s favour over a contract dispute between the two parties.
According to him, Springfield broke a prior agreement when it failed to pay Glencore $1.2m (£915,000) plus interest for breaching a contract to take oil from the FTSE 100 company.
Having paid almost half of an agreed settlement of $2.2 million, Springfield halted payments on the basis that Glencore had allegedly broken Ghanaian law, it no longer had to pay. The judge found “no illegality of the sort belatedly alleged by Springfield” and said he preferred the testimony of Glencore’s expert. He criticised written evidence presented by Springfield as “difficult to follow and superficial.”
Around £5 billion was wiped off Glencore’s market value at the start of July when it was served a subpoena under US laws relating to corruption and money laundering.
The US wants to see documents relating to Glencore’s dealings in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela dating back to 2007.
Business Insider Sub Saharan Africa reached Glencore's Charles Watenphul and he refuted all allegations.
"We totally refute the allegations. In fact a UK high court recently ruled in our favour."