Malabo oil deal: Shell & Eni face corruption trial in Italy today

An Italian court in Milan is set to resume corruption trial against executives of two oil giants (ENI and Shell) and Nigeria’s ex-oil minister Dan Etete in what seems to be one of the biggest international corruption case in recent years.

The judge is to make a final decision today September 18 after repeatedly delayed in the case involving the 2011 purchase by Shell and Eni of Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oilfield, one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks with reserves of to 9.3billion barrels of crude oil and gas reserves.

Eni’s current CEO Claudio Descalzi, former CEO Paolo Scaroni, and Chief Operations and Technology Officer Roberto Casula are standing trial alongside four former Royal Dutch Shell staff members including former executive director for Shell’s Upstream International operations Malcolm Brinded and two former MI6 agents Guy Colegate, a business adviser; and John Copleston, a strategic investment adviser employed by Shell of having paid millions of dollars in bribes in order to acquire a lucrative oil exploration and drilling license in Nigeria.

The trial started in 2011 when Shell and Eni reportedly transferred $1.3 billion into a Nigerian government bank account. The two companies wanted to secure the rights to an oil field called OPL245, which according to estimates by the oil companies was worth $3 billion. However, the majority of the payments did not end up in the Nigerian treasury but went to a company called Malabu Oil & Gas, which was controlled by then oil minister Etete.

In December 2017, Italian judges in Milan ordered the companies and a number of individuals, including top executives at Shell and Eni, to stand trial. The trial has been slow to unfold and remains in preliminary hearings.