Tunisia has missed another ICSID admin payment, according to the energy company, which labelled the failure a ‘deliberate, bad faith’ move to derail its near-USD 573 million arbitral claim.
Calgary-headquartered energy company Zenith Energy has called out Tunisia for failing to pay the arbitration costs owed to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) as its UK subsidiaries continue to pursue a USD 572.65 million claim against the North African country.
In a statement on 9 November, Zenith Energy said that, following Tunisia’s “persistent failure” to meet its payment obligations throughout the process, ICSID has “again requested” that the country pay its outstanding share of the arbitral costs.
According to Zenith, the state has not contributed towards any of the procedural costs that should be shared equally between the parties, leaving the claimants to pay these expenses instead.
“This procedural development reflects Tunisia’s continued noncompliance with its financial obligations and ICSID’s efforts to ensure that such noncompliance does not impede the continued progression of the ICSID arbitration towards a final award,” the company said.
Zenith added that the country’s behaviour is “particularly surprising” given its “continued representation by Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, a leading international law firm specialising in sovereign defence”.
It continued: “The company considers this persistent refusal to comply with established procedural obligations to constitute a deliberate, bad faith attempt to obstruct the administration of justice and impede the claimants’ pursuit of their legitimate treaty claims, rather than evidence of any inability by the Republic of Tunisia, as a sovereign state, to meet its financial obligations.”
The company’s UK subsidiaries – Zenith Energy Africa, Zenith Overseas Assets and Compagnie du Désert – filed their claim against Tunisia in June 2023 under the 1989 UK-Tunisia bilateral investment treaty (BIT), originally seeking USD 48 million. The dispute concerns the Sidi El Kilani and Ezzaouia oil concessions, and stems from what Zenith had labelled “unreasonable and arbitrary” and “unjustified obstructions for processing the sale of produced oil” to the detriment of the company, on the part of the Tunisian government.
Zenith added that Tunisia’s continued noncompliance has “once more raised serious questions” about its commitment to meeting its obligations under the UK-Tunisia BIT, as well as its broader obligations towards international investors.
ALB has contacted Curtis Mallet for comment.
In a similar vein, UAE-based conglomerate Axis International last week criticised Guinea for failing to pay a USD 200,000 fee to ICSID as its near-USD 30 billion claim against the West African country gets more heated.
