ICSID Corruption Claim Fails in Bangladesh Gas Payments Arbitration

Interview with Saadia Bhatty, counsel at Gide London and specialist in international commercial and investment arbitrations, published by LexisNexis on 31 October 2019.

Two (identically constituted) International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunals have dismissed a jurisdictional objection from respondents related to alleged corruption, in a recently published decision on the corruption claim (the decision). The matter arose out of two contract-based arbitrations between a subsidiary of Canadian-owned energy company Niko Resources Ltd, and two Bangladeshi state-owned oil and gas entities, Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration (BAPEX) and Production Company Limited and Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), concerning the sale and extraction of gas in northern Bangladesh.

Saadia points out the decision involves several findings and issues worthy of note for practitioners in the field.

Please click on the PDF file below to read the interview in full.