Shell writes down OPL 245 licence amid bribery trial

Royal Dutch Shell said its secondquarter wr i t e downs include the OPL 245 licence for an offshore oilfield in Nigeria which it holds alongside Eni and which is at the centre of an ongoing corruption trial in Italy.

Italian prosecutors have asked for oil majors Eni and Shell to be fined and some of their present and former executives, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, to be jailed in a long-running trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria. All the defendants have denied any wrongdoing.

According to Reuters, Shell said a post-tax impairment charge of $4.658 billion was “mainly related to unconventional assets in North America, assets offshore in Brazil and Europe, a project in Nigeria (OPL245), and an asset in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.”

Eni had on July 21, 2020, considered that the public prosecutor’s requests for conviction of the company, its former and current CEOS and the managers involved in the Opl245 proceeding were completely groundless.

It stated that during its indictment, in the absence of any evidence or tangible reference to the contents of the trial investigation, the public prosecutor had told a story based on suggestions and deductions as already developed during the investigation.

It stated that this narrative ignores both the witnesses and the files presented within the two years long and more than 40 hearings proceeding, which have decisively denied the prosecutorial hypothesis.

“Defence lawyers are going to show to the Court that both Eni and its management’s conducts were correct in the Opl245 transaction,” the company said.

Eni and Shell paid a reasonable price for the license directly to the Nigerian government, as contractually agreed and through transparent and linear means. Furthermore, Eni neither knew nor should have been aware of the possible destination of the money subsequently paid by the Nigerian government to Malabu. Moreover, the payment was made after an inquiry carried on by the UK’S Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the company stated.

“So there can therefore be no bribes from Eni in Nigeria, no existence of an Eni scandal. Eni recalls the decision of the Department of Justice and the US SEC, which decided to close its own investigations without taking any action against the company.”