The Minister of State for Petroleum , Timipre Sylva, has said that it is waiting for the Attorney- General of the Federal, Abubakar Malami, to decide whether to withdraw the Oil Prospecting Licence 245 from Eni S.p.A and Royal Dutch Shell after the companies were acquitted of corruption charges by an Italian court.
The Federal Government had initiated legal proceedings against Shell, Eni , including former minister of Petroluem Resources, Dan Etete who owns Malabu Oil & Gas and other parties involved in the deal described as ‘shady’.
Eni, an Italian oil company and Royal Dutch Shell had in 2011 acquired the drilling rights at the OPL245 deep-water offshore oil field in Nigeria for $1.3bn.
Advertisement
The Italian and Dutch oil firms were alleged to be aware that $1.1bn of the fee they paid for the OPL245 licence was not paid into Nigeria’s national coffers, but to Etete’s company, Malabu Oil & Gas.
It was also alleged that hundreds of millions of dollars were shared to a number of middlemen and well-connected officials from the former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
But 15 defendants including ENI CEO, Claudio Descalzi, in March were acquitted of corruption allegation in a case which was centered around the oil bloc mismanagement.
The same court in Milan had sentenced Emeka Obi and Gianluca Di Nardo, two intermediaries in the same OPL245 case to four years in prison in September 2018, which is sparking questions over the credibility of the verdict.
In a monitored briefing, on Thursday, Sylva said the fate of the two companies were still been discussed by the ministry and the AGF.
Sylva said, “We are still discussing with the legal people, we know that there is already a judgement, but the Attorney General is still discussing with us and they are looking at the judgement and of course we will come back to you with interpretation of the attorney general on this matter.”
Eni has also initiated an arbitration procedure in the United States as it intends to exchange its exploration permit on OPL245 for an exploitation licence.
This would give ENI and Shell the right to continue to develop the project.
ENDS