Malabu: Italian judge jails Nigerian, one other

’Femi Asu  with agency report

After several years of inquiry into the purchase of an offshore oilfield in Nigeria by Shell and Eni, an Italian judge on Thursday sentenced two defendants to jail in the first ruling on one of the oil industry’s biggest graft scandals.

The two oil majors are embroiled in a long-running corruption case revolving around the purchase in 2011 of one of Africa’s biggest oilfields – Oil Prospecting Licence 245 – for about $1.3bn.

Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo were found guilty of international corruption and each given four-year jail sentences, Reuters quoted three sources with knowledge of Thursday’s ruling as saying.

Lawyers for Obi and Di Nardo declined to comment, according to Reuters.

Milan prosecutors alleged that bribes totalling around $1.1bn were paid to win the licence to explore the oilfield which, because of disputes, has never entered into production.

The main trial, which besides Eni and Shell, also involves Eni Chief Executive Officer, Claudio Descalzi, and four ex-Shell managers, including a former Shell Foundation Chairman, Malcolm Brinded, is expected to drag on for months.

But Obi and Di Nardo, accused of being middlemen and taking illegal kickbacks, had asked for a separate fast-track trial which, under Italian law, allows sentences to be cut by a third.

Thursday’s ruling will not tie the court’s hand in the main trial.

The next hearing of the main trial involving Eni, Shell and 13 people is set for September 26.

Barnaby Pace, anti-corruption campaigner at Global Witness, was quoted as saying, “This judgment will send shivers down the corporate spines of the oil industry.”

In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for Shell was quoted as saying that neither Obi nor Di Nardo worked on behalf of the company, adding that it was waiting to see the fast-track judge’s written decision.

“Based on our review of the Prosecutor of Milan’s file and all of the information and facts available to us, we do not believe that there is a basis to convict Shell or any of its former employees of alleged offences,” it said.

Also in emailed comments, Italian oil company Eni reiterated it had acted correctly in the purchase of OPL 245, saying it had worked directly with the Nigerian government.

OPL 245 is one of the biggest sources of untapped oil reserves on the African continent with reserves estimated at nine billion barrels.

Eni, the biggest foreign oil producer in Africa, has been doing business in Nigeria since 1962 and last year produced 109,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Shell is the biggest foreign investor in the country, producing 266,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2017.

The sources said the Milan judge had ordered the seizure of $98.4m from Obi and more than 21 million Swiss francs ($21.9m) from Di Nardo.

Prosecutors had alleged that Obi received a mandate from a former Nigerian Petroleum Minister, Dan Etete, to find a buyer for OPL 245, collecting $114m. Di Nardo, they said, took $24m of that amount for putting Obi in touch with Eni.

 Copyright PUNCH.

Dutch Company indicates Interest in Building Cattle Ranches in Nigeria

Mr Klaus Struilesma of a company called Cownexxion has indicated the interest of the organization in building cattle ranches in Nigeria.

This was disclosed in a statement by the special adviser media to the president, Femi Adesina, when President Muhammadu Buhari met with Chief Executive Officers of Dutch companies Monday on the sidelines of his official visit to The Hague, Netherlands.

Over 20 CEOs of Dutch-owned companies were at the round table meeting.

Recall that the federal government is mulling the idea of building cattle ranches in some states as a way of stemming the tide of killings due to the incessant farmers and herders clashes.

Also according to the presidential spokesman, Mr David Suddens of Vlisco said the company would invest on 400 hectares of land for a textile park in Nigeria, while Mr Hein Schumacher of Friesland Campina described Nigeria as “a most important country to us,” adding that the conglomerate would invest about 11 million euros in a “ready to drink project, using 100% locally sourced milk.”

He also pledged continuous training for dairy farmers, and provision of fortified milk for school pupils.

Mr Andrew Brown of Shell, which has done business for over 60 years in Nigeria, with over 3,000 local employees, said the company would maintain its emphasis on oil and power generation, while Mr Roland Pirmez of Heineken commended the government for “stability in exchange rate for the past six to eight months.”

He added that the company was also planning to use renewable energy for its power needs, President Buhari also assured them of a safe and secure Nigeria, where their investments would be safe, and yield handsome returns.

“Stability was the first thing in our campaigns. You have to secure a country first, before you can efficiently manage it. Before businesses can thrive, security is paramount. That is why we lay so much emphasis on securing the country.

“After security, our next emphasis is reviving the economy, and then, fighting corruption,” the President said.

He commended the many Dutch-owned companies operating in Nigeria for dealing fairly, noting that with many of them, “the relationship dates back more than two generations, and it is now almost a blood relationship rather than commercial.”

Urging the businesses to build factories in Nigeria, and source raw materials locally rather than wholesale import, President Buhari said he was impressed with the economic cooperation between Nigeria and Netherlands.

Speaking specifically about Royal Dutch Shell and the harnessing of Nigeria’s gas potentials, the President said: “We are more of a gas than petroleum producing country. We should be making more money from gas today than we make from petroleum, but the plans we made were scuttled.

“When I was Petroleum Minister (in the 1970s) for three-and-a-quarter years, the plan we had was to have 12 LNG trains by 1983, but more than a generation later, we are just on the 7th train. This was because some people came, and did just what they liked. If they knew what they were doing, we would have gone very far by now.

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