“Pre-Action Notice Missing” — Court Strikes Out Challenge To Oil Field Allocation, Upholds Minister, NUPRC

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed against the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) and two others, challenging the proposed allocation of four oil fields.

The suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2678/2025, files by Hi-Rev Oil Limited and Hi-Rev Exploration and Production Ltd, listed the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) along with the Petroleum Minister as defendants.

Ruling on Monday, Justice Emeka Nwite, upheld the preliminary objections filed by the defendants and held that the suit was incompetent.

Justice Nwite further held that the plaintiffs failed to serve the defendants with a valid pre-action notice in compliance with Section 308 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021,an omission that robbed the court of the necessary jurisdiction to hear the suit.

He said a valid pre-action notice would notify the defendants of the plaintiffs’ grievances, the intention to seek legal redress within a definite time, the declaratory reliefs that would be sought, among others.

Justice Nwite said the plaintiffs’ letter, which they claimed to have served on the defendants before filing the suit did not meet the required standard, adding that it fell short of the statutory prescriptions for a legal notice.

Justice Nwite upheld the argument by the Petroleum Minister that the plaintiffs failed to disclose reasonable cause of action in the suit.

The plaintiff had prayed the court to among others, restrain the defendants or whomsoever is acting on their behest from selling, assigning or allocating the Yorla South (Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL) 2A32 – OML 11) located in Rivers.

They equally sought restrain the defendants from allocating Akiapiri (PPL 2A48 – OML 25) located in Bayelsa; Diebu Creek East (OML 32) also located in Bayelsa and Idiok (PPL 2A41 – OML 67) located in Akwa Ibom, “same being direct replacements for Utapate Oil Field (formerly part of OML 13) and OPL 2002, previously allocated to the plaintiffs, but was later withdrawn by the defendants.