Zenith Energy, in its freshly-released annual report for the year to 31 March says it has “initiated various legal proceedings against the Republic of Tunisia, with a total cumulative claimed amount of at least US$48mn.” This is according to the specialist website “mees”.
The site adds that Zenith “submitted a request for arbitration against the Republic of Tunisia before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington,” it says.
It added that “the Arbitration has been launched following a series of actions undertaken by the Tunisian government to the material detriment of the commercial interests of… [Zenith] including, inter alia, unreasonable and arbitrary obstructions in relation to the development of the Sidi El Kilani and Ezzaouia concessions.
More specifically… unjustified obstructions for processing the sale of produced oil.”
For Tunisia, this is not the last dispute to come before this international economic tribunal.
Among the “pending cases”, Tunisia is still dragging its feet in the ABCI case, where the parties have had a brief on costs since 7 April 2023, while the “ARB/13/15” case is still pending.
Another case against the oil company “Lindin Tunisia” is closed, since the Secretary General of ICSID issued an order in September 2014 noting the withdrawal of the case.
