Monrovia – Eco Fuel FZE which accused SRIMEX Oil and Gas of hijacking its petroleum storage terminal at the Free Port of Monrovia has been ordered evicted from the premises by the Supreme Court.
Eco Fuel had alleged that it invested about US$25 million in Foreign Direct Investment to build a much needed modern Petroleum Storage Terminal in Liberia which has now been reportedly hijacked by Srimex Oil and Gas.
The facility was been built over the course of a year to the highest of international standards using the most modern of equipment and techniques.
The facility was closed down due to a land dispute over the ownership of the land the terminal is built upon.
However, Eco Fuel alleged that Srimex Oil and Gas with the full support of LPRC, the government storage company and authorizing body for the petroleum industry, took over and were operating the storage facility. This was despite a court order declaring that the site is not to be operated, Eco Fuel alleged.
The essence of Srimex’s suit is that it (Srimex) has the exclusive right to possess and use the land on which the Terminal was built in accordance with a lease agreement Srimex entered into with the NPA that holds title to the land. Eco Fuel, in its response to the suit, acknowledges the NPA Lease between Srimex and NPA, but states that Srimex subsequently transferred the NPA Lease to Eco Fuel by way of an Assignment of Lease by Novation (Novation and Substitution Agreement) between Srimex and Eco Fuel, as well as the NPA and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC). The NPA have filed an affidavit in response to the Srimex Suit, confirming the statement of Eco Fuel that Srimex assigned by novation all its rights and interest under the NPA lease to Eco Fuel. Copies of the Novation Agreement have been provided to the court and were put in records of the suit by both Eco Fuel and the NPA.
But the Supreme Court in its decree stated that the Substitution and Novation Agreement executed by the parties in April 2016 cancelled ab initio as though it was never executed.
The Court: “The Leasehold right of the subject premises is hereby reverted to the Petitioner, and the Clerk of Court is hereby ordered to issue a Writ of Possession to be placed in the hand of the Sheriff to have co-respondent Eco Fuel FZE and its subsidiaries evicted, ousted and ejected from the leased property and place the Petitioner in possession thereof.
“The parties in this litigation are hereby ordered to nominate a auditor who will be appointed by this Court to ascertain the cost of the construction of the terminal and the cost of the Petitioner’s expenses in respect of the construction of the terminals, deduct from the cost of the expenses the amount realized by the Respondents in the operation of the terminal and thereafter determine the amount to be paid to the respondents by the Petitioner as equity demands in the premises.”