Savannah Midstream Investment Limited (SMIL), a subsidiary of British group Savannah Energy, is claiming more than $397 million — roughly 228.6 billion FCFA including principal and interest — in an arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) concerning the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (Cotco), according to Africtelegraph and Investir au Cameroun, both reporting 28 September 2026.
The claim names five defendants jointly: the Republic of Chad, Cameroon's Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), SHT Overseas Petroleum (Cameroon) Limited, SHT Doba Pipeline Investment Inc., and Cotco itself. SNH is Cameroon's national oil and gas company, not Chad's — Chad's national hydrocarbons entity is a separate body, Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT), which is linked to two of the other named defendants.
The demand breaks down to about $330 million in principal — nearly 190 billion FCFA — plus more than $67 million in interest, along with procedural costs. The case is registered as ICC Case No. 27914/SP, governed by the ICC's 2021 arbitration rules, seated in Paris, with Cameroonian law applicable to the substance of the dispute.
The dispute traces back to an April 2023 agreement under which SNH agreed to acquire a 10% stake in Cotco from SMIL for roughly 26.9 billion FCFA ($44.8 million), part of a plan to raise Cameroon's direct stake in the pipeline operator from 5.17% to 15.17%. The deal became entangled in a wider dispute after Chad nationalized Savannah's upstream assets in the Doba oil fields in 2023, prompting Savannah entities to pursue arbitration and other legal proceedings against Chad, Cotco, SHT Overseas Petroleum and other Cotco shareholders. Chad, SHT Overseas Petroleum, Cotco and other shareholders have filed counterclaims worth about $58.7 million, which SMIL disputes; procedural orders in the case date to at least May 2024, and no final award had been publicly issued as of the latest reporting.
Cameroon's SNH has already recorded the exposure in its accounts: its 2025 financial statements reportedly included a provision of about 10.8 billion FCFA — 40% of the 26.9 billion FCFA it paid — against the stalled share transfer, reflecting uncertainty over whether the shares will ever be delivered. Cotco owns and operates the 903-kilometer Cameroonian section of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, which has a nominal capacity of 250,000 barrels per day.
Given Chad's oil-dependent budget, a claim of this scale would represent a material fiscal exposure if a tribunal ultimately rules against the state, though the arbitration remains unresolved and Chad has not issued a public response to the specific 228.6 billion FCFA figure cited in the latest reports.