Malabu scam: Shell, Eni file probe findings with US authorities

Royal Dutch Shell and Eni have voluntarily filed to United States’ authorities internal probes into how they acquired a giant field in Nigeria as the companies seek to fight corruption allegations in Europe and Africa.

The filings, to the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, do not mean US authorities are investigating Shell or Eni, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

But the move shows the companies are trying to pre-empt questions from the US as they face one of the oil industry’s biggest-ever graft trials in Italy, to begin in May in Milan, a pending trial in Nigeria and an investigation in the Netherlands.

The oil majors are accused of corruption in the 2011 purchase of Oil Prospecting Licence 245, an offshore oil block in Nigeria estimated to hold nine billion barrels of crude in reserves.

Punch, March 14, 2018

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