Page 9 - AfrOil Week 24 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

Conflict and protests have brought Libya’s oil output down by more than 1mn bpd(Photo: Crisis Group)
Libya’s main oilfields and export terminals Additionally, oil workers have staged strikes
have witnessed repeated closures as a result of when their wages have not been paid on time.
protests, political power struggles and other State-owned National Oil Corp. (NOC)
disruptions. declared force majeure in April after protests
The oil sector has also become the focus of led to the closure of multiple sites. That month,
political contention for other reasons. Protests Libya exported only 819,000 bpd of crude, down
have erupted, as citizens have demanded fair from nearly 1mn bpd in March. Since then, out-
distribution of oil revenues among all regions. put levels have been trending downward. ™

POLICY
London high court rules against Nigerian

government in suit over Malabo oil deal

NIGERIA A London high court ruled on June 14 that
Nigeria’s federal government had failed to prove
that the US-based banking giant JPMorgan
Chase & Co. had acted with gross negligence in
2013 when it allowed funds paid by two inter-
national oil companies (IOCs) to be transferred
into an account that was not directly under Abu-
ja’s control.
The US federal government has been pursu-
ing legal action against JPMorgan through the
British court system since 2017. It has been seek-
ing more than $1.7bn in damages over the trans-
fer in question, which occurred in connection
with the acquisition of Oil Prospecting Licence
(OPL) 245, also known as Malabo, by Shell (UK)
and Eni (Italy).
Abuja’s complaint centres on the fact that
JPMorgan allowed funds from Shell and Eni to
be deposited into an escrow account that was Shell and Eni arranged to acquire OPL 245 in 2011 (Image: PGS)
controlled by Dan Etete, who served as Nigeria’s
Minister of Petroleum Resources between 1995 corruption and was found guilty of mon-
and 1998, when General Sani Abacha held the ey-laundering by the French court system in
presidency. 2007. He allegedly acquired title to OPL 245 in
Etete has a well-deserved reputation for 1998, while serving as minister.

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