Court docket rejects Nigeria’s compensation request towards Eni, Shell

By Alfredo Faieta and Francesca Landini

MILAN (Reuters) – An appeals court docket in Milan on Friday rejected Nigeria’s $1.092 billion compensation request towards Italian vitality group Eni SpA and Shell (LON:) Plc in civil proceedings regarding a $1.3 billion oilfield deal.

The choice was learn out in court docket.

In July prosecutors had dropped associated felony proceedings, clearing Eni and Shell, in addition to managers together with Eni Chief Govt Claudio Descalzi, in one of many oil trade’s greatest alleged corruption circumstances.

The primary case revolved round a deal during which Eni and Shell acquired the OPL 245 offshore oilfield in 2011 to settle a long-standing dispute over possession.

Prosecutors alleged that just below $1.1 billion of the overall quantity was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen.

Eni mentioned on Friday it was glad with the appeals court docket’s choice and added it had began an arbitration towards the African nation on the Worldwide Centre for Settlement of Funding Disputes (ICSID).

“Eni remembers that it has promoted a ICSID worldwide arbitration in Washington towards Nigeria for the safety of its OPL 245 license with respect to the general detrimental penalties suffered within the affair,” the Italian group mentioned in a press release.

In a separate message, Shell mentioned it was happy that the civil proceedings had been dismissed.

“This follows the Milan felony tribunal’s discovering that there was no case to reply for Shell or its former workers after they had been totally acquitted in 2021, a call that was upheld in July 2022, when felony proceedings ended,” Shell added.

A lawyer representing Nigeria within the proceedings mentioned on Friday that the nation was nonetheless deciding whether or not to attraction the choice at Italy’s prime administrative court docket.

Paperwork explaining the explanations behind Friday’s court docket choice will probably be made accessible in 90 days.