Shell and the Italian oil firm Eni bought the block known as OPL 245 in 2011. Activists including the watchdog group Global Witness say the money ultimately went to a company secretly owned by a former Nigerian oil minister and never reached state coffers.

Global Witness and other groups filed a complaint in 2015 with the public prosecutor in Milan that the group says describes Shell’s role in the transaction.

Eni was already being investigated. Both firms have denied wrongdoing.

In a statement this week, Shell said officials searched its headquarters in The Hague in February and that it was cooperating with officials. read more

Global Witness said Dutch supermajor and its partners exposed shareholders to risk.

By Daniel J. Graeber

LONDON, March 31 (UPI) — Transparency advocates said Royal Dutch Shell and its partners in Nigeria may have exposed shareholders to a high level of risk in a corrupt system.

Global Witness said it was joining Nigerian anti-corruption campaigners in working to expose what they say is an opaque corporate reputation in the country. Global Witness Director Simon Taylor said that, working with Italian energy company Eni, the Dutch supermajor was stained by corruption.

“Shell and Eni exposed their investors to massive risks and have been tainted by this theft from Nigerian citizens,” he said in a statement. read more

Outsider: Contrary to what today’s newspaper reports might suggest, Shell wasn’t “dragged” into the long-running OPL 245 scandal – Shell was involved in orchestrating it from the very start.

Since expenditure at this level must have required the approval of the EC it will be interesting to see whether Shell will let us know which members of the EC were responsible for approving the scam.

Gordon Deegan: Thursday, March 31, 2016

Shell Ireland has received a further €50m cash injection from oil giant Shell, as the Irish firm finally generates revenues from the long-delayed and controversial €3.6bn Corrib Gas field.

The increase of €50m in capital at Shell E&P Ireland Ltd is confirmed in new documents lodged with the Companies Office, which show that the authorised share capital at the firm now stands at €1.4bn.

Shell and its Corrib Partners over 2015 and 2014 spent €580m, made up of an investment of €260m last year and €320m in 2014 to bring gas ashore. read more

The oil giant said it was cooperating with the authorities.

The probe is connected to the 2011 $1.3bn purchase of Nigeria’s OPL-245 offshore oil block by Eni and Shell.

As part of the investigation, Shell headquarters in The Hague were searched in February by Dutch police and prosecutors, a spokesman added.

“We can confirm we have received notice of proceedings from the public prosecutor in Italy,” the Shell spokesman said.

In 2014 a Milan court starting probing Italian oil giant Eni over allegations of corruption connected to the OPL-245 offshore oil block acquisition. read more

By Irina Slav: Posted on Wed, 30 March 2016

Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed media reports that it is looking to sell part of its production holdings in the North Sea, saying all these assets—33 in total, including the Brent field that gave its name to the international benchmark—are being reviewed along with others, in other parts of the world.

The sale is part of Shell’s efforts to raise around $30 billion to restore some of the money it spent on buying BG Group for around $57 billion. Plans are to carry out the sales over the next three years. read more

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) and the Dutch public prosecutor had raided the multinational’s office in the Hague.

FULL ARTICLE

Shell is now being dragged into the investigation

The international oil company said on Wednesday it was co-operating with officials from both the Netherlands and Italy as they investigate the $1.1bn deal, which Shell signed five years ago alongside Eni, the Italian oil company.

Shell also confirmed it had been placed under investigation by prosecutors in Milan…

FULL FT ARTICLE

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Shell and Italian oil giant, Eni, agreed to secretly pay $1.3 billion to Malabu through the Nigerian government in 2011.

The money was meant for OPL 245, one of the largest oil blocs in Africa which was awarded to Malabu in 1998 when Dan Etete was the petroleum minister under the late dictator, Sani Abacha.

After Shell and Eni paid the money into Nigeria’s accounts in JP Morgan bank, London, the federal government transferred $801 million of the money into Malabu accounts controlled by Mr. Etete in Nigeria. read more

“We can confirm that representatives of the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) and the Dutch Public Prosecutor recently visited Shell at its headquarters in The Hague,” a spokesman said.

“The visit was related to OPL 245, an offshore block in Nigeria that was the subject of a series of long-standing disputes with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Shell is cooperating with the authorities and is looking into the allegations, which it takes seriously.” read more

The Anglo-Dutch oil company said the recent visit by the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service and the Dutch Public Prosecutor to the company’s headquarters in The Hague was about a Nigerian oil block that has been the subject of an Italian criminal investigation.

FULL ARTICLE

“Representatives of the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service and the Dutch Public Prosecutor recently visited Shell at its headquarters, ” a spokesman said.

“The visit was related to OPL 245, an offshore block in Nigeria that was the subject of a series of long-standing disputes with the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

Shell is cooperating with the authorities and is looking into the allegations, the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso. Editing by Jane Merriman) read more

Milan prosecutors opened a corruption probe into Eni in 2014 in a case relating to a $1.3 billion acquisition of Nigeria’s OPL-245 offshore oil block in 2011 by the Italian company and Shell.

They later placed under investigation Eni’s Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi and another top manager at the company. The probe has now been widened to Shell, the source said, confirming a report in Corriere della Sera daily on Wednesday.

Shell declined to comment. Eni has denied any wrongdoing in the case. read more

Extracts from an article by Kyle Mizokami published by THE WEEK: 29 MARCH 2016

Russia is staking its claim to the Arctic and is being more than a little unreasonable about it. In 2007 Russian robotic submarines planted the national flag under the North Pole. Russia claims the North Pole on the grounds that the Lomonosov Ridge, an extension of Russia’s continental shelf territory, passes underneath the pole.

Russia is preparing to back its claims up, too: As of 2015, it had established six new bases north of the Arctic Circle, including 16 deepwater ports and 13 airfields. Russia has deployed advanced S-400 long-range surface-to-air missiles, as well as “Bastion” supersonic anti-ship missiles, to protect Arctic bases. The vastness of the Arctic means these weapons don’t threaten other countries, but they do create fortified bases that will allow Russia to springboard ships, planes, and Arctic-trained troops into contested territory. read more

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY: 28 MARCH 2016

If you live in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas beware: You are nearly as likely to experience an earthquake as high-hazard areas such as California, but the risk is man-made.

That’s the conclusion in a first-ever report made public Monday from the U.S. Geological Survey, which cites the oil and gas drilling process as triggering the quakes.  The assessment of human-induced seismic shaking found 7 million people in the central and eastern U.S. live in the man-made earthquake zone,  said Mark Petersen, head of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project. read more

by Nicholas Newman: Rigzone Contributor: Monday, March 28, 2016

Royal Dutch Shell plc established its reputation for ground-breaking innovation with the design and construction of the world’s first commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Algeria in 1964. Today, the need to be ever more innovative is crucial, given the crash in oil and gas prices, which is forcing extreme cuts throughout the industry value chain. In addition, the fossil fuel industry is coming under pressure from the adoption of policies aimed at combating climate change making long-term investments commercially much more difficult to justify.  read more