UPDATE 3-UK judge to allow firm to try to seize $9 bln in Nigerian assets in gas dispute

* P&ID won arbitration decision over Nigerian gas dispute
* UK judge says P&ID now has right to try to seize assets
* Nigerian government had said award was clearly excessive

(Adds comment from Nigeria's solicitor general)
By Libby George
LAGOS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A judge in London said on Friday
he would grant a firm called Process and Industrial Developments
Ltd (P&ID) the right to seek to seize some $9 billion in assets
from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.
The company was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration
decision over a failed project to build a gas processing plant
in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest
payments, the sum now tops $9 billion - some 20% of Nigeria's
foreign reserves
The judge's decision, issued on Friday, converts the
arbitration award to a legal judgement, which would allow P&ID
to try to seize international assets.
Lawyers representing the Nigerian government argued the
award should not be enforced because England was not the correct
place for the case, and even if it were, the amount awarded was
"manifestly excessive."
Mr Justice Butcher of the Commercial Court rejected these
arguments and said he would "receive submissions from the
parties as to the precise form of order appropriate."
A spokesman for Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari
directed requests for comment to the Ministry of Justice. The
country's solicitor general Dayo Apata told Reuters that the
government would appeal the decision.
"P&ID is committed to vigorously enforcing its rights, and
we intend to begin the process of seizing Nigerian assets in
order to satisfy this award as soon as possible," said
Andrew Stafford, Q.C. of Kobre & Kim, which represents P&ID.
The case involves a 2010 deal in which the Nigerian
government agreed to supply gas to a processing plant in Calabar
that P&ID – a firm founded by two Irish businessmen
specifically for the project - would build and run.
In 2012, P&ID took the government to arbitration over the
failure of the deal and won the award, which was based on what
it could have earned during the 20-year agreement.
Stafford said that with accrued interest, the award now tops
$9.6 billion.
Legal experts told Reuters previously that assets used for
diplomatic purposes – such as the Nigerian High Commission
building in central London – are not eligible for seizure, but
commercial assets are.