Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Shell, Eni used Nigeria’s share of OPL 245 to fund billion dollar bribery scheme

April 25, 2019: An analysis by oil consultancy firm, Resources for Development, says oil giants Shell/Eni’s deal for the controversial OPL 245 included “unprecedented terms” which funded an alleged bribery scheme.

The analysis was commissioned by four non-governmental groups — Global Witness, HEDA, Re:Common and The Corner House — based on publicly available documents.

This included Shell and Eni’s valuations of the oil block, according to a statement released by the NGOs on Thursday.

Italian prosecutors allege that the $1.1 billion paid by Shell and Eni for the licence was used to pay Dan Etete, former minister of petroleum resources and “intended for payment to President Jonathan, members of the government, and other Nigerian public officials”.

They have denied the allegations, but the oil companies and some of their senior managers are now standing trial, charged with international corruption, with prosecution pending in other countries.

The analysis alleged that the deal included “unprecedented terms which funded an alleged bribery scheme.  The terms replicated military-rule era “Sole Risk” contracts, and boosted Shell and Eni’s internal valuations of the oil deal enough to justify the companies paying $1.1bn upfront”.

“The award of military era style contracts for deep water fields to huge international oil companies appears to unprecedented since the advent of civil government in Nigeria. The deal transferred massive economic benefits to the companies at the expense of the Nigerian people by giving away Nigeria’s right to its share of the oil produced, terms which resemble ‘Sole Risk’ contracts granted only to Nigerian companies during military rule in Nigeria’s Deep Water. The Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources currently lists the OPL 245 license as a Sole Risk type contract in its annual report,” the statement further said.

“The analysis of Shell and Eni’s valuation documents prepared before they agreed the deal in 2011 appears to show that the transfer of Nigeria’s share of future revenue to the companies was essential for the companies to be willing to pay over a billion dollars upfront, money that prosecutors say was used to pay massive bribes.

“The analysis also found that the Nigerian state’s ability to buy their rights back was heavily restricted in the deal with Nigeria having to pay $650m plus interest up front to re-acquire a stake worth an estimated $2 billion in future revenue. These rights would still leave Nigeria with a far lower share of the oil production than recommended by the IMF, and 15% or $3.5bn lower than previous terms for the same license.”

An earlier analysis, published in late 2018 by the same firm, concluded that the terms of the contract could reduce the Nigerian government’s revenue from the fields by $5.86 billion over the lifetime of the project when compared to the standard production sharing contract (PSC) terms in place in Nigeria since 2005, “assuming an oil price of $70 per barrel”.

Emails between Shell managers at the time allegedly showed they were aware that the deal would not give Nigeria rights to the share of its oil that is usual in deals between country governments and international companies.

Barnaby Pace, a campaigner at Global Witness said: “We’ve known of allegations of vast bribery in this deal for years. Now we’ve learned that Shell and Eni profited unfairly through military era contract terms meaning that it was Nigeria’s share of oil that was used to fuel profiteering and payoffs. It is simply unacceptable that Shell and Eni should be allowed to hold on to this scandalous deal.”

“These companies and Nigerian officials agreed a sweetheart deal that deprives Nigeria of money it badly needs to build schools and pay doctors. PresidentBuhari should reject any deal that leaves the OPL 245 oil license with these companies,” Olanrewaju Suraju of HEDA said.

Nick Hildyard of The Corner House said Shell and Eni “represented their OPL 245 contract as a production sharing system yet it includes no sharing of production for Nigeria. This shockingly poor deal must be cancelled”.

“The Italian government is discouraging Nigerian migrants trying to reach Italy by claiming that it will help them at home, but Italy’s biggest multinational, part owned by the state, is accused of depriving the Nigerian people of billions. The OPL 245 scandal appears to show that Italians are not helping the poorest, but profiting from them,” said Antonio Tricarico of Re:Common

Shell, when asked for comment, stated that “in line with correct legal process, many of these issues will be considered by the court and we do not wish to interfere with those proceedings”.

Eni also said in light of their ongoing trial, Eni is “unable to disclose… information relevant for the pending proceedings, nor is it otherwise willing to publicly disclose data that are sensitive in nature.”

SOURCE

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.