A mysterious British executive has been identified as the recipient of millions of pounds from a $1.3 billion Nigerian oil deal at the centre of one of the industry’s biggest corruption scandals.

Peter Bosworth and the trading firm he ran, Arcadia Petroleum, have been named in multiple court documents as among the ultimate recipients of funds from the allegedly corrupt 2011 deal in which Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, the Italian company, acquired a prized offshore oil block, The Times and the investigative website Finance Uncovered can reveal.

The deal for the OPL 245 oil licence is the subject of criminal proceedings in Milan. Two middlemen have been convicted in one case and there is a corruption trial against Shell and Eni, in which both…