NEWS
Paul Hastings Secures "High Stakes” Win in Paris Arbitration Involving African Power Project
September 24, 2026
Led by a team from the firm’s Paris and London offices, Paul Hastings (Europe) LLP achieved a landmark victory on behalf of Nigeria in a complex, high-profile, high-value dispute in a commercial arbitration arising out of an African power project.
As summarized in Global Arbitration Review, “The claims were worth upwards of $885 million [as the claimant] sought $680 million plus interest that it said Nigeria owed under an agreement that purported to settle a separate ICC arbitration worth $2.7 billion over the Mambilla hydroelectric power project.” The tribunal rejected the claims and ordered the claimant to pay 75% of Nigeria’s arbitration costs, plus interest. The arbitration was seated in Paris.
The case was a “high-stakes International Chamber of Commerce arbitration” over the Mambilla hydropower project and a “major” hydropower project in Nigeria, as described in Law 360.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a statement that “commended the country's defense team at Paul Hastings LLP for their professional and excellent defense," led by partners Elizabeth Oger-Gross and Tolu Obamuroh.
In addition to Oger-Gross and Obamuroh the Paul Hastings team representing Nigeria included of counsel Opeyemi Longe in London, and associates Pauline Weess and Lamar Gadzama in Paris.
Recognized as “a premier international arbitration practice” (Legal 500), the Paul Hastings international arbitration practice has a presence in over 15 of the firm’s global offices and features dozens of lawyers active in arbitration as part of a group of almost 500 litigators worldwide. Paul Hastings has been ranked in the Global Arbitration Review (GAR) annual list of the world’s top international arbitration practices since its inception two decades ago and is one of the only elite firms to be included in both the 2026 GAR arbitration rankings and the top ten of the 2026 American Lawyer Power Rankings.
About Paul Hastings
With widely recognized elite teams across 17 core practices, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm with a culture of excellence focused on providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations.