Trial will begin in Italy on March 5 in a corruption case that could prove one of the biggest in the oil industry's history.
The case centers on Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni SpA's decade long negotiations for a joint license to the offshore oil field known as OPL 245, located in Nigerian waters. Prosecutors say company executives were aware that the $1.3 billion paid for the license would end up as bribes for a former Nigerian oil minister and Nigerian officials.
Some $1.1 billion in bribes, they allege, was destined to go to a newly created Nigerian company named Malabu Oil and Gas, under the terms of the deal. The company, which in 1998 was awarded the rights to the OPL 245 field by the military government of Sani Abacha, was ultimately controlled by Abacha's son and other associates, according to court documents.
Eni's current CEO, Claudio Descalzi, and its CEO at the time, Paolo Scaroni, are charged with international corruption and bribery, along with executives from Shell and both of the companies themselves.
The executives involved all deny wrongdoing. So do Eni and Shell deny wrongdoing, saying they didn't know the payments would end up as bribes.
"Eni and Shell paid the consideration for this license to the Nigerian government," wrote Eni in emails to The Wall Street Journal. "It was the prerogative, right and at the discretion of the Nigerian government to decide ... how to use the price received from Eni and Shell"
