MILAN, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Italian oil group ENI’s Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi could step down if he is found guilty by an Italian court of corruption in Nigeria, he told the Wall Street Journal.

Descalzi is one of the defendants in a case over the alleged payment of bribes to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil deal for Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oilfield in 2011.

In a long interview published on the Wall Street Journal website on Saturday, Descalzi denied taking part in any illegal activity and said his work at ENI, where he rose through the ranks over the course of 39 years, was not done.

However, Descalzi told the WSJ that he would likely step down if found guilty in the Nigeria case rather than wait for the outcome of lengthy appeals. read more

JANUARY 23, 2020

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s financial crime watchdog charged former attorney general Mohammed Adoke in court on Thursday for allegedly receiving bribes to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil deal, the agency said in a statement.

It is the latest development in one of the oil industry’s biggest corruption scandals, over the 2011 sale of the offshore oilfield known as OPL 245 by Malabu Oil and Gas.

A resulting investigation has entangled two of the sectors biggest players, Shell and Eni, as well as an array of powerful figures from the previous Nigerian government. read more

JANUARY 23, 2020 / 10:12 PM

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian tax police searched the Milan offices of three managers at Eni (ENI.MI) on Thursday to widen an investigation into suspected obstruction of justice by officials at the Italian oil group, two sources said.

The inquiry is still in an early phase and has been overshadowed by an ongoing corruption trial centering on the 2011 purchase of a Nigerian oilfield by Eni and oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L).

Milan prosecutors opened the obstruction case in 2018 to investigate whether in 2015 and 2016 Eni officials had sought to discredit two independent board members who later became witnesses in the Nigeria case. read more

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri: JAN 21, 2020

The Federal Government, on Monday, slammed a fresh 42-count charge against the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN, over alleged fraud in the $1.1billon Malabu oil deal.

Adoke, who served as AGF under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, was arrested upon his return to the country from Dubai, United Arab Emirate, on December 19, 2019.

He went on self-exile shortly after ex-President Jonathan lost his re-election bid in 2015, but was arrested and detained in Dubai by the INTERPOL on November 11. read more

Extracts from an article by Stephen Delahunty published 15 January 2020

Newly released files under the UK’s declassification rules reveal that John Major’s Conservative Government rejected Mandela’s personal appeal to impose oil sanctions on Nigeria as it wanted to protect Shell and the UK’s wider commercial interests.

In 1995, Nigeria’s military regime executed nine environmental activists who had led a non-violent protest against pollution by Anglo-Dutch company Shell and other energy firms in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The so-called ‘Ogoni 9’ were executed on 10 November 1995, following a military tribunal that was internationally condemned – particularly by South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela.

Newly released files under the UK’s declassification rules reveal that John Major’s Conservative Government rejected Mandela’s personal appeal to impose oil sanctions on Nigeria as it wanted to protect Shell and the UK’s wider commercial interests. read more

English translation of an article published 14 Jan 2020 by ncr.nl the Dutch news media giant

Former CEO Shell in Nigeria may have benefited from the purchase of a mega-oil field

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Houtekamer
• 14Jan 2020

The Italian prosecutor suspects that the former chief executive of Shell in Nigeria has benefited from the controversial purchase of the mega-oil field OPL 245 off the Nigerian coast. This is Sunmonu Mutiu, who led the Nigerian division of the Anglo-Dutch oil company. He was also a director of a software company that received 5 million dollars for unclear reasons a few years after the OPL deal. They would come from Nigerian former minister Dan Etete, owner of the oil field and the main suspect in the bribery case where more than 1 billion euros in bribes would have been paid. The possible self-enrichment by a senior Shell manager is in a request for legal assistance that Italian prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale recently sent to the US. He leads the Italian investigation into possible bribery by Shell and the Italian oil company Eni. Shell does not want to respond because it is still studying the ‘new documents’. (NRC) read more

English translation of an article published by the Dutch news media giant nrc.nl 

A suitcase full of secrets about oil, sex and bribery by Shell

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Houtekamer
• 13 Jan 2020

Shell in Nigeria A dubious game took place around Africa’s most coveted oil field. New, secret documents from a confiscated suitcase tell how Shell tried to avoid reputational damage.

Former oil minister Dan Etete (r) was the owner of the oil field, but also infected after a conviction for money laundering. Photo Gindl Barbara / AFP

What’s the news?

The Italian prosecutor suspects that the former chief executive of Shell in Nigeria has benefited from the controversial purchase by Shell of the mega-oil field OPL 245 off the Nigerian coast. This is Sunmonu Mutiu, who led the Nigerian division of the Anglo-Dutch oil company. read more

Extracts from NIGERIA Africa Energy Intelligence article dated 07/01/2020

As an Italian court continues its probe into the award of Nigeria’s most promising offshore block, all those involved in the deal at Shell are no longer with the major.

These include the head of upstream at the time Malcolm Brinded, former general counsel Keith Ruddock and legal advisor for Africa Guus Klusener.

Shell’s political advisor and ex-MI6 John Copleston, who met with Etete on several occasions to discuss the OPL 245 deal in 2010, has left…

Another former MI6 agent, Guy Colegate, who had advised Shell during the OPL 245 talks from Nigeria, left to work for Heritage Oil in 2013… read more

LATEST OPL 245 NEWS JANUARY 4, 2020

“Shell and Agip again went into a fraudulent agreement with Malabu Oil and Gas, in which the companies will pay a signature bonus of $210m to the Federal Government of Nigeria, while $1.2b would be paid to the owners of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. “Shell Petroleum was later to explain that the payment was for compensation, but an investigation conducted revealed that the money was a bribe to Dan Etete and his cronies.”

ARTICLE

What actually happened to the $1.2billion allegedly paid by Shell and Agip into Federal Government’s Escrow Account with JP Morgan Chase bank sometime in 2011 in relation to the execution of a supposed settlement agreement in respect of the controversial OPL 245 held by Malabu Oil and Gas? Was it a bribe or compensation? The truth could only be known at the conclusion of the charges now pending against former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke and others. ERIC IKHILAE reports.

Had President Muhammadu Buhari accepted the suggestion by his Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, on how he thought was the best way to permanently rest the seeming undying scandal that the Malabu Oil and Gas Limited’s Oil Mining Lease (OML) 254 has become, his (Malami’s) immediate predecessor’s return on December 19, 2019 would have been less dramatic and controversial.

Malami had, in a legal opinion dated September 27, 2017 told the President, among others, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was on a wild goose chase in proposing to prosecute his immediate predecessor, Mohamed Adoke for the last administration’s dealing in relation to what has grown to become the Malabu oil deal scandal. read more

Ikarama-Okordia (Nigeria) (AFP): 3 Jan 2020

Martha Alfred used to harvest 20 bags of cassava each year before an oil spill forced her to abandon her field and hawk roasted fish to survive.

Her smallholding at Ikarama-Okordia, a community in southern Nigeria’s Bayelsa state, became unfit for growing crops after crude from a nearby Shell facility spewed into the environment last August, she says.

Today, the 33-year-old mother of two looks angry and helpless, her woes compounded by downpours during the last rainy season that flooded her land. read more

By Martin PlautInstitute of Commonwealth Studies: 31 Dec 2019

The UK and US considered a navy-backed oil embargo against Nigeria, following the 1995 execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, a document released by the UK government reveals.

Saro-Wiwa and eight other campaigners from the Ogoni ethnic group were hanged on 10 November 1995.

They had been found guilty by a secret military tribunal of the murder of four Ogoni chiefs by a mob.

The nine denied the charge and said they had been framed.

Saro-Wiwa led mass protests against oil pollution in Nigeria’s Ogoniland.

The protests were seen as a major threat to Nigeria’s military ruler at the time, Gen Sani Abacha, and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.

• Fishermen at risk amidst the oil

• Militants cripple Nigeria’s oil sector

The executions led to Nigeria suspension from the Commonwealth. read more

Neil Munshi in Eleme, Nigeria:29 Dec 2019

Local people’s lack of faith is rooted in decades of mistrust in the authorities. In the 1990s, writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) led non-violent protests seeking justice for the Ogoni over the severe environmental degradation in their homeland caused by oil extraction. The government responded with a brutal crackdown and in 1994 executed Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Little has changed since. Ogoniland, like the broader Niger Delta, has become more polluted and development has stalled, with little to show for the billions of dollars in crude that has been extracted. read more

Reporting by Camillus Eboh in Abuja and Libby George in Lagos, Dec 27, 2019

* Train 7 will boost LNG output to 30 mln t/y

* Deal shows “renewed confidence” from investors – Kyari

* FID was delayed from Q4 2018

ABUJA/LAGOS, Dec 27 (Reuters) – Nigeria signed a major gas expansion deal on Friday, a much-needed collaboration with oil majors that Nigeria LNG said would boost its liquefied natural gas output by more than 30%.

The agreement marks a moment of amity with international oil majors, even as a tax dispute and a new law increasing the government’s take on deepwater oil production have irked some companies.

The final investment decision on the Train 7 processing unit at the Bonny Island plant was signed by Nigeria LNG partners state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Eni , Total and Royal Dutch Shell in Abuja. read more

The former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN),

In Milan, two middlemen were convicted and some former and current Shell and Eni officials are also on trial. “The value of the oil block was put at about $3.5 billion but through underhand deals, Nigeria only got about $209million

From Yusuf Alli, Abuja: Dec 23, 2019

There were indications on Sunday that the bank accounts of former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Mohammed Adoke are being screened by operatives probing his suspected involvement in the $1.06 billion Malabu Oil Block (OPL 245) deal.

The former minister, who has been in custody since last Thursday when he returned to the country from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has opted to pass data and documents relating to the deal to investigators, it was gathered. read more

Regarded as one of the biggest corporate corruption scandals in history, the Malabu oil scandal involved the transfer of about $1.1bn by oil giants Shell and Eni through the Federal Government to accounts controlled by a former Minister of Petroleum, Mr Dan Etete. Shell and Eni were said to have given the bribes in a bid for OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks. The oil block’s reserves were estimated to be 9.23 billion barrels of crude oil.

Jesusegun Alagbe and Alexander Okere: Published Dec 21, 2019

Italian prosecutors have been asked to produce a Nigerian ‘super witness’ who is a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Isaac Eke, in the ongoing probe of the $1.1bn Malabu oil scandal.

The Palace of Justice in Milan, Italy, during the week told prosecutors to make the key witness appear before it by January 29, 2020, to testify in the trial.

Turning down recorded testimony of the witness and all forms of examination via video conferencing, the court said unlike before when it allowed Nigerian witnesses testify via video conferencing, the ex-police chief must be physically present to testify at the ultimatum. read more

by Reuters: Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:35 GMTABUJA, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s former attorney general was detained by the country’s financial crimes agency upon his return home on Thursday, the commission said in a statement, as part of an investigation into one of the oil industry’s biggest suspected corruption scandals.

Mohammed Adoke was arrested by Interpol in November after travelling to Dubai for a medical appointment. He voluntarily flew back to the West African country on Thursday, his lawyer said.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigation relates to the $1.3 billion sale of a Nigerian offshore oilfield known as OPL 245 by Malabu Oil and Gas in 2011.

Eni SpA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc jointly acquired the field from Malabu, which was owned by former petroleum minister Dan Etete. read more