Soon thereafter, African Petroleum Corporation announced that it is going to international arbitration with the Government of The Gambia, a request lodged with the World Bank's International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) based in Washington DC.
The Ministry of Petroleum officials were in London a couple of weeks ago to negotiate a deal with African Petroleum where the arbitration request with ICSID will be dropped in exchange for the restoration of the contracts for Block A1 and A4.
The Senegalese oil discovery announced recently may have been an influencing factor in getting the dictatorship in Banjul to temper their belligerent and unpredictable attitude towards foreign companies they have been dealing with in the last decade most of which ended in arbitration.
The details of the deal between AP and Government of The Gambia are unknown, as are other similar contracts with other petroleum companies designed and intended to keep Gambians in the dark. It is expected that a joint announcement will be made shortly.
