FACTBOX-Legal cases sparked by Nigerian OPL 245 oilfield licence

By Reuters Staff: NOVEMBER 12, 20202:42 PM

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – One of the oil industry’s biggest court cases over alleged corruption in Nigeria involves an offshore oilfield licence known as OPL 245, which Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni bought in 2011.

Italian prosecutors allege that most of the payment for the licence was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen.

Shell and Eni and the managers accused in the Milan court case, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, have all denied any wrongdoing. read more

Translation of an article published overnight by the Dutch media organisation nrc.nl

High prison sentences demanded against former Shell employees

Lawsuit In a criminal case for alleged corruption by Shell and Eni when purchasing a Nigerian oil field, the Public Prosecution Service demands high penalties.

Merijn Rengers and Carola Houtekamer: July 21, 2020 at 22:22

The Italian Public Prosecution Service demanded unprecedented high prison sentences in Milan on Tuesday against four former Shell directors and employees for large-scale corruption. The prosecution charges it to a former member of the board of directors, a director and two advisers who participated in bribery in Nigeria. The amount of the kickback, more than $ 1 billion, makes this one of the largest corruption affairs a Dutch company has ever been involved in. read more

Translation of an article published overnight by the Dutch news media organisation, nrc.nl

Of course, Shell knew about the corruption risk, the prosecutor said

Lawsuit over oil field In a dim Milanese bunker, Tuesday was worked towards the denouement in the corruption case against oil companies Shell and Eni. Prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale calls it “the perfect economic crime.”

Carola Houtekamer: July 21, 2020

The lawsuit revolves around the acquisition of rights to the oil field “OPL 245”, for which Shell and Eni paid $ 1.3 billion. Photo George Osodi / Getty read more

MILAN, July 21 (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors have asked for oil majors Eni and Shell to be fined and some of their present and former executives, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, to be jailed in a long-running trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria.

In a Milan court, prosecutors asked on Tuesday for eight years in prison for Descalzi and seven years and four months for Shell’s former head of upstream Malcolm Brinded.

The prosecutors also asked for Eni and Shell to be fined 900,000 euros ($1.04 million) each and sought to confiscate a total of $1.092 billion from all the defendants in the case, the equivalent of the bribes alleged to have been paid. read more

  Peter Milne: 15 May 2020 • 10 min read

ANALYSIS

While the Prelude did export LNG at about half its capacity for the second half of 2019, it is now idle.

Moored far off the Kimberley coast it is plagued with technical problems, dwindling gas reserves and safety processes condemned by the regulator despite Shell and its partners spending about $US19.3 billion ($A30.0 billion) to the end of 2019.

Neither Shell and its partners nor Australia have gained anything near what they expected from the giant experiment. read more

3.3 THE “OPL 245” BRIBERY CASE

In 2018, Italian prosecutors brought a criminal case over the alleged involvement of Shell, and the Italian oil multinational Eni, in a 1.3 billion US dollar bribery scheme linked to the license of OPL 245. This is the name of one of Nigeria’s most valuable offshore oil blocks.

Thirteen individuals, including some current and former senior managers of Shell and the Italian oil company Eni, are currently on trial in Italy relating to how the two companies acquired the block in 2011.80 The defendants include both companies, a former Royal Dutch Shell Executive Board Member and two former MI6 agents who worked for Shell.81 read more

The Nigerian government on Monday lost a bid to postpone a massive claim against oil giants, Eni and Shell, in a London court.

Royal Dutch Shell and Eni’s bid to block a $1.1 billion civil claim over corruption allegations in Nigeria will go ahead next month, Mark Pelling, a judge in a London court ruled on Monday.

The court ruled that it should not wait for a connected Italian ruling.

Nigeria wanted the April court date postponed until January 2021, when a connected criminal case in Milan will have concluded. read more

Upstream Online: Shell learns from Prelude challenges

Shell is currently in the process of ramping up its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas development off Western Australia, but the ambitious project …

Extract ends

Printed below are extracts from recent postings on our Shell Blog relating to the above Upstream Online article and its interview with Shell VP Prelude, Bob Jager.

Posting on 19 August 2019

I would be interested to know the content of the article just published by Upstream Online about the Prelude FLNG problems?

What I do know is that Prelude is still having difficulties in with the processed volumes of any of the three streams of product, LNG, LPG and condensate.

I have been monitoring the Marine Traffic web site with Prelude as the target. The offtake tankers, LNG or condensate, can be seen hanging around but at a greater distance from Prelude making it not as easy to keep track of as in previous occasions. The latest LNG tanker, Symphonic Breeze, has been nearby for nearly a week waiting for its nominated cargo. The demurrage costs must be quite high by now as the “notice of readiness” will have been tabled on arrival. read more

Italian prosecutors accuse former and current executives of the two energy giants of paying bribes to secure the licence. In March 2019, Dutch prosecutors said they were preparing criminal charges against Shell over OPL 245.

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK: JUL 18, 2019

According to Reuters, one of the oil industry’s biggest corruption trials revolves around a Nigerian offshore licence known as OPL 245, which Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni bought in 2011.

Italian prosecutors accuse former and current executives of the two energy giants of paying bribes to secure the licence.

Shell and Eni, and their executives have denied the accusations and any wrongdoing.

Below are a list of legal actions that have arisen from the award of OPL 245: read more

In September 2017, four foreign NGOs filed a declaration in the Netherlands against Shell, Van Beurden and three (former) directors. According to lawyer Barbara van Straaten of the law firm Prakken d’Oliveira, this declaration was added to the current investigation by the Public Prosecution Service.: Almost a year ago, Shell itself filed a statement against former director Peter Robinson. According to the group, the Australian would have been guilty of corruption in Nigeria. Robinson is one of the four former Shell employees who stand trial in Milan. Justice in the US and stock market watchdog SEC were also informed.

English translation of a Dutch article published today by ncr.nl

The question is: did Shell know that the money ended up with the politicians?

Corruption The bulk of the purchase price for the Nigerian oil field OPL 245 ended up in the pockets of politicians. Justice thinks it has enough evidence to prosecute Shell.

Hester van SantenErik van der Walle: 1 March 2019 at 1:00

Shell is being prosecuted in the Netherlands because of possible corruption in Nigeria. The oil and gas company announced on Friday morning that it has been informed about this by the Public Prosecution Service (OM). According to a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service, “offences” have been committed and there is “enough to prosecute”. The spokesman states that the investigation has almost been completed. read more

Former Shell CEO Peter Voser is an unlucky man. He had the incredible misfortune to be in charge of the bad guys at both corporate giants, Shell and UBS Bank simultaneously, while presumably being personally innocent of any criminal acts? What are the chances of that happening? The question of managerial negligence, twice-over, must surely be another matter?

By John Donovan

Printed below is an article published yesterday by BBC News reporting that the “Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case.”

The article goes on to say that “Following similar cases in the US in 2009 and Germany in 2014, the bank accepted large fines.”

During the period of criminal activity the then Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc – Peter Voser – was paid millions of Swiss francs in his role as a director of UBS AG. He was also a member of the governance and nominating committee and of the strategy committee. read more

Latest news on the OPL 245 scandal involving several senior Shell executives, including Malcolm Brinded and MI6 “people” hired by Shell, as admitted by RDS Chief Executive Ben van Beurden during a telephone call surreptitiously recorded by investigators. During the same conversation, on the spur of the moment and perhaps shocked by the news that RDS global HQ was being searched for evidence, he issued instructions that if carried out, could qualify as obstruction of a criminal investigation.  read more

By John Donovan

Printed below is a self-explanatory email sent last month to the named Trade Union parties and the Scottish Government Justice Committee by Bill Campbell, retired global safety guru for Royal Dutch Shell Plc. I have redacted personal email addresses.

It was also copied to a family member Susan Moncrieff of one of the deceased Brent Bravo platform workers, Keith Moncrieff.

From: Bill Campbell
Subject: Technical Notes
Date: 18 December 2018 at 12:23:19 GMT
To: [email protected], [email protected]
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] read more

…any settlement without a full and clear statement of facts and admission of guilt would be contrary to the interests of open justice.

By Wale Akinola: 20 JAN 2019

Four Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have written to the Minister of Justice of The Netherlands to warn against out-of-court settlement in the case instituted by The Netherlands government against Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS) and Shell Petroleum over the acquisition of the OPC 245 oil and gas field in Nigeria. read more

EMAIL COMMENT RECEIVED FROM BILL CAMPBELL FOLLOWING PUBLICATION OF THE ARTICLE Royal Dutch Shell lied to thousands of its employees over offshore death

From: William Campbell
Subject: Re: Brent Bravo
Date: 17 January 2019 at 12:29:50 GMT
To: John Donovan <[email protected]>

John, thanks

I hope that this indisputable evidence from a governmental report will quell the abusive comments etc made about you on the website, just poison etc.

I am absolutely sure that Holliday fully understands the rottenness of the organisation he joined but is trapped like Ollila and Brandjes were trapped by the corruption disease emanating from MB. Corruption is like the Spanish Flu, it effects everyone it comes into contact with.

The significance of the HSE report cannot be overstated, the chronology is also important, this opinion of the HSE was reached on 18 November 2004 a year before the FAI and purposefully withheld from the FAI, this can no longer be disputed by anyone.

Bill

EXTRACT FROM A COMMENT RECEIVED FROM A SHELL RELATED SOURCE

I like your english understatement. ‘Shell not happy’. ??

Some people would love to have you killed but there is nothing they can do. They must be so frustrated.  Could not have happened to nicer people.

And I admire Bill, he is like a pitbull that does not let go. read more

Printed below is a self-explanatory email sent within the last hour to Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Chad Holliday by Bill Campbell, retired global safety guru for Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Note that it was also sent to HSE officials.

I have redacted personal email addresses and corrected typos. 

From: William Campbell
Subject: Royal Dutch Shell lied to thousands of its employees over offshore deaths
Date: 17 January 2019 at 11:03:41 GMT
To: [email protected]
Cc: susan moncrieff <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected] read more