Malabu Deal: Italian Court Orders Prosecution Of Shell, Eni

An Italian court has ordered the trial of Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in the controversial sale of OPL 245 oil block.

The judge ordered that Claudio Descalzi, an Eni executive, and his predecessor, Paolo Scaroni, should be tried for their role in the shady deal.

OPL 245 is considered the richest oil bloc in Africa.

The OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas against all known government regulations in 1998 by late military dictator, General Sani Abacha.

The title was later withdrawn and allocation of the oil bloc to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd on the directive of then Presidential Adviser on Petroleum to President Olusegun Obasanjo, after which it was re-allocated to Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Ltd without a public bid.

Though Malabu sued the Federal Government over the revocation, the matter was subsequently settled out of court and the said oil well returned to the plaintiff.

It was alleged that Shell and Eni again went into a fraudulent agreement with Malabu Oil and Gas in which the companies will pay signature bonus of $210m to government, while the sum of $1.2bn would be paid to the owners of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd.

A year later, the $1.3 billion deal was struck, with Malabu getting $1.1 billion from Shell and Eni to its transfer ownership, while the signature bonus was paid to Nigeria.

The trial is expected to commence on March 5, 2018.