A London-listed oil and gas company lost a high-profile international arbitration case with Georgia after spending $1m on lobbying fees to pressure the country’s government, openDemocracy and OC Media report today.
The dispute between Houston-based Frontera Resources and Georgia’s state oil and gas corporation dominated the country’s headlines in early 2020, after US politicians attempted to intervene in the standoff over allegations that Georgia was ‘expropriating’ a US business.
Frontera had originally promised to help Georgia acquire “energy independence” and high returns for British investors after it claimed to have found 3.8 trillion cubic metres of gas in the east of the country. But a dispute between the company and Georgia’s state oil and gas corporation over exploration and production territory – including whether Frontera had confirmed viable oil and gas resources – eventually went to arbitration.
