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In the Courts
Royal Dutch Shell and Eni Head to Trial over Nigeria Corruption Allegations
Since 2014, oil and gas companies Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA have been investigated by authorities in Italy, the Netherlands, and Nigeria regarding alleged significant payments to secure a billion-dollar deal involving one of Nigeria's largest untapped oil fields. On Dec. 20, 2017, a judge in Milan, Italy, accepted charges both for Shell and Eni, as well as Eni's CEO and a number of current and former employees of both companies, to stand trial beginning March 5, 2018. While anti-corruption investigations are not uncommon in the oil and gas industry, such a trial is rare and could be precedent-setting.
Italian prosecutors have been working to build a case related to the acquisition of a deepwater oil-prospecting license by the companies in 2011. Prosecutors allege that Eni and Shell paid almost $1.1 billion into a Nigerian government escrow account, part of which was later said to be distributed amongst Nigerian officials as payoffs for the deal. In December 2017, the Milan prosecutor alleged that at least $520 million was converted to cash and intended to be paid to the then Nigerian president, a former oil minister, and other Nigerian officials.
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