Page 11 - AfrOil Week 29 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Shell and Eni arranged to acquire OPL 245 in 2011 (Image: PGS)

Nigeria to continue with $3.5bn civil

suit against Eni, Shell in Italian courts

NIGERIA ABUJA will move ahead with a civil lawsuit settlement was legal and were pleased that the
against Shell (UK) and Eni (Italy) in the Italian court found, in 2021, [that] there was no case
court system in connection with the acquisition to answer for Shell or its former employees,” she
of Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245, despite wrote.
a previous ruling that barred further pursuit of The Shell spokeswoman was referring to
criminal claims, Olabode Johnson, a lawyer for the deal that her company and Eni struck with
the Nigerian federal government, has said. the Nigerian government on the acquisition of
Johnson told Bloomberg by telephone on OPL 245 in 2011. Abuja has argued that exec-
July 19 that Nigerian federal authorities were utives from Eni and Shell knew at the time that
still determined to appeal an Italian court’s most of the $1.1bn they had agreed to pay into
decision in March 2021 that acquitted the com- an escrow account set up for the deal would be
panies, along with several of their present and spent on bribes rather than held by the Nigerian
former executives, on corruption charges. government.
However, he indicated that the appeal would The bribes are said to have gone to Dan
be pursued in the civil court system. Addition- Etete, who served as Nigeria’s Minister of Petro-
ally, he said that Abuja would be seeking $3.5bn leum Resources from 1995 to 1998, during the
in compensation in civil court. The Nigerian presidency of General Sani Abacha. Etete has a
government has arrived at that figure because well-deserved reputation for corruption and was
that is the true value of OPL 245, the licence found guilty of money-laundering by the French
acquired by Shell and Eni, he commented. court system in 2007. He allegedly acquired title
Johnson was speaking shortly after Ital- to OPL 245 in 1998, while serving as minister,
ian criminal prosecutors announced that they and agreed to accept funds from Shell and Eni
would not consider overturning the March 2021 in exchange for giving up his claim and surren-
ruling. Shell and Eni have hailed the prosecutors’ dering the asset to the Nigerian government so
decision, saying it upholds their long-standing that the IOCs could buy it in 2011.
contention of their own good faith. Abuja has been pursuing claims against
Eni said in a statement that Italian judicial Shell, Eni and other parties involved in the OPL
authorities’ refusal to consider overturning the 245 transaction, such as the US-based banking
ruling on criminal corruption charges demon- giant JPMorgan Chase & Co., in multiple ven-
strated that the acquittals were “full and final.” ues, including the UK and the US, over the last
It also lamented the “serious and unfair reputa- several years. To date, it has not won any of its
tional damage” the company had sustained as a cases. Earlier in July, the UK High Court of Jus-
result of the lawsuit. tice ruled that the Nigerian federal government
A spokeswoman for Shell, meanwhile, made would not be allowed to appeal a previous ruling
similar remarks in an email message to Bloomb- dismissing a GBP1.4bn ($1.69bn) claim against
erg. “We have always maintained that the 2011 JPMorgan Chase & Co. ™

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