Norwegian oil firm DNO, among the first foreign firms authorised to operate in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein, said on Wednesday it had been ordered by a London court to pay damages to a former business partner.
DNO said early estimates put the damages "in the range of 55 (million) to 75 million dollars." It did not name the beneficiary, but Norwegian press reported it was a Yemenite millionaire.
"Based on the preliminary calculation, the award is expected to imply additional loss of 45 (million) to 65 million dollars in the company's accounts for the third quarter of 2010," DNO said.
The announcement sent the company's shares down 1.80 percent on the Oslo stock exchange in early trading. At 0915 GMT, shares were down 1.27 percent on a market up 0.93 percent.
The small Norwegian company had already planned for provisions amounting to some 12 million dollars in its 2009 accounts in connection with the issue, examined by the London Court of International Arbitration.
"The company is in a position to fully cover the estimated range of damages from its cash reserves," it said.
According to Norwegian business daily Dagens Naeringsliv, the dispute was between DNO and Yemenite businessman Shaher Abdulhak, who was ousted from the exploitation of the Tawke oil field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
News agency NTB reported Shaher Abdulhak is the father of Farouk Abdulhak, a Yemenite man suspected of raping and strangling to death Martine Vik Magnussen, a young Norwegian woman, in London in 2008.
Abdulhak is wanted by British police and is believed to be hiding in Yemen, which does not have an extradition accord with Britain.
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