In what appears to be an opening of an old
wound, British Police has said it was investigating a money laundering
allegation of $1.3 billion in relation to an oil field bought by Shell and ENI
from Nigeria.
Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil
Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan
Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of
the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9.2 billion barrels of
crude reserves worth $1 trillion.
Also, a committee set up in the House of
Representatives to look into the deal had last week, urged the Nigerian
Government to revoke oil rights for which Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Eni
SpA (ENI) paid $1.3 billion, alleging that the acquisition process was “highly
flawed.”
“Unfortunately, our national interest,
knowingly or unknowingly, was ceded to the two oil majors,” the committee said.
The sale violates a law to promote increased Nigerian ownership of oil assets
by giving foreign companies 100 percent ownership as well as the country’s tax
regulations, the report said, alleging a “lack of transparency and full
disclosure” by Shell in acquiring the license, the committee said.
While Shell and ENI said they bought the
block from the Nigerian government, for which they paid it $1.3 billion in
2011, the Federal Government said it was helping resolve an ownership dispute
over the block between Shell and Malabu and immediately transferred $1.09
billion from the sale to Malabu, while government retained the remainder.
A Shell spokesman told Reuters that it had
purchased the block from the government, without making any payment to Malabu,
adding that it acted transparently and in accordance with Nigerian law.
While Shell and Eni now hold 50 per cent
each of Malabu’s former oil field, the
“indigenous policy authorises 40 per cent
maximum ownership to foreign oil companies,” the committee said. Taxes weren’t
paid on the transaction on the basis that “no sale or transfer occurred,” yet
both companies became beneficiaries of a new asset, according to the report.
Etete had awarded the block to Malabu
during the military administration of General Sani Abacha, whose son, Mohammed, and other close allies
were shareholders in the company. The deal was later annulled after the death
of Abacha by a new government that judged the award improper.
Meanwhile, in a UK court case brought by
Emeka Obi against Malabu for unpaid fees relating to his help in brokering the
Shell/ENI deal, the judge, Justice Elizabeth Gloster, concluded in her ruling
last week that “From its incorporation and at all material times, Etete had a
substantial beneficial interest in Malabu.”
But Etete said he was only a consultant to
the company, but he represented the company in the court case and in all
negotiations with the oil majors, and he told the court he was the sole
signatory to its accounts.
Documents relating to Obi's London case
show that both Shell and ENI met several times with Etete to negotiate the
deal. An email from a Shell employee to another middleman recounts how he met
Etete for face-to-face negotiations over "lots of iced champagne".
Obi said in court he approached ENI on
Malabu's behalf on December 24, 2009, and introduced Etete to an ENI
representative to discuss the deal.
Meanwhile, Transparency campaigners, has
asked the UK to look into the matter, asserting that Shell and ENI used the
Nigerian government as a go-between to obscure the fact that they were dealing
with former oil minister Dan Etete, who also has a 2007 money-laundering
conviction in France relating to bribes he was alleged to have taken when in
government.
Culled from The Sun, with Agency report
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