An Italian judge said on Monday that Royal Dutch Shell and Eni were fully aware that their 2011 purchase of a Nigerian oilfield would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials.
The two oil majors are embroiled in a long-running corruption case revolving around the purchase of Oil Prospecting Licence 245, which is one of the biggest sources of untapped oil reserves on the African continent with reserves estimated at nine billion barrels.
Shell and Italy’s Eni bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about $1.3bn in a deal that spawned one of the industry’s largest corruption scandals. It is alleged that about $1.1bn of the total was siphoned to agents and middlemen.
Reuters reported on Monday that the Milan judge made the comment in giving her written reasons for the September conviction of Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, both middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, for corruption. The two were jailed for four years.
“The management of oil companies Eni and Shell … were fully aware of the fact that part of the $1.092bn paid would have been used to compensate Nigerian public officials who had a role in this matter and who were circling their prey like hungry sharks,” Judge Giusy Barbara said in her reasoning.
“It was not mere connivance, but a conscious adhesion to a predatory project damaging the Nigerian state,” she added.
She also said money was given to some Eni managers.
Obi and Di Nardo have been tried separately from Eni and Shell, which also face corruption allegations over the same deal in a hearing that is expected to drag on for months.
Eni said it would analyse the judge’s remarks, noting that a fuller account of the facts and evidence surrounding the deal would emerge only from the main trial.
The Italian company has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Under the deal, Eni and Shell jointly acquired the OPL 245 field from a company owned by a former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete, who, the judge noted, had been put under investigation in 2003 in France for alleged money-laundering.
Shell said on Monday that neither Obi nor Di Nardo had worked for Shell, and that there was no basis to convict it or any of its former member of staff of alleged offences related to the oil deal.
Eni Chief Executive, Claudio Descalzi, and four ex-Shell managers, including former Shell head of upstream, Malcolm Brinded, are also accused of international corruption in the main trial. They have all denied any wrongdoing.
Brinded’s lawyer referred requests for comment to Shell. Punch
