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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Italian court rejects Nigerian bid for

compensation from Eni and Shell

NIGERIA AN Italian court has rejected a $1.1bn compen- had sought long prison sentences for Eni and
sation claim made by Nigeria against Eni and Shell executives. Four months later, Nigeria’s
Shell over a $1.3bn oilfield deal. attempt to have $1.1bn returned in fines has
The claim surrounds a deal made with Eni now also been rejected by an arbitration court
and Shell in 2011, in which the two companies in Milan.
acquired an offshore licence area known as OPL In a statement to Reuters, Shell noted that it
245. The agreement settled a long-standing was pleased that the civil proceedings had been
dispute over the block, which was previously dismissed. “This follows the Milan criminal tri-
owned in part by former Petroleum Resources bunal’s finding that there was no case to answer
Minister Dan Etete. for Shell or its former employees when they
Nigeria has accused Eni and Shell of knowing were fully acquitted in 2021, a decision that was
that around $1.1bn of the $1.3bn deal would be upheld in July 2022, when criminal proceedings
used to bribe politicians, officials and middle- ended,” the company said.
men. In particular, Nigeria named Etete as one Abuja has been pursuing claims against
of the officials who received some of these funds. Shell, Eni and other parties involved in the OPL
Abuja has been arguing that executives 245 transaction, such as the US-based banking
from Eni and Shell knew at the time that most giant JPMorgan Chase & Co., in multiple ven-
of the $1.1bn they had agreed to pay into an ues, including the UK and the US, over the last
escrow account set up for the deal would be several years. To date, it has not won any of its
spent on bribes rather than held by the Nigerian cases. ™
government.
The bribes are said to have gone to Etete,
who served as Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum
Resources from 1995 to 1998, during the pres-
idency of General Sani Abacha. The former
minister has a well-deserved reputation for cor-
ruption and was found guilty of money-laun-
dering by the French court system in 2007. He
allegedly acquired title to OPL 245 in 1998,
while serving as minister, and agreed to accept
funds from Shell and Eni in exchange for giving
up his claim and surrendering the asset to the
Nigerian government so that the IOCs could
buy it in 2011.
In July of this year, a court in Italy denied
Nigeria’s claims of corruption and ruled that a
crime had not been committed. The prosecution Shell and Eni arranged to acquire OPL 245 in 2011 (Image: PGS)

South Africa seeks funds to replenish

Eskom’s depleted diesel reserves

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Department of Public Enter- known locally as “loadshedding” now in force.
prises (DPE) is urgently working with the The embattled utility warned about a short-
National Treasury and state-owned power util- age of diesel last week, says the media platform.
ity Eskom to find money to buy diesel supplies, Eskom said South Africans should expect
BusinessLIVE reports. more loadshedding in the coming months as it
Additional diesel reserves for Eskom will embarks on major repairs and a maintenance
help to reduce the higher stages of power cuts, programme that will increase the risk of outages.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 24•November•2022