Italy has been ordered to pay UK-based oil and gas company Rockhopper Exploration €190 million (US$190 million) in compensation after an international arbitration panel ruled the European nation had breached its obligations under the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).
Rockhopper launched the action in 2017, four years after the London-listed company acquired the Ombrina Mare field in the Adriatic Sea from Mediterranean Oil & Gas.
In 2015, the Italian government banned hydrocarbon extraction within 12 miles (about 20 kilometres) of the country's coast, partly in response to environmental concerns following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, scuppering Rockhopper's plans.
