An Italian court has cleared state-owned oil giant Eni and Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell of any wrongdoing related to alleged corruption in their award of acreage offshore Nigeria.

Shell, Eni, its chief executive Claudio Descalzi and other top managers of both companies on Wednesday were fully acquitted by the Court of Milan, which ruled there was no case to answer.

The protracted legal battle relates to Eni and Shell’s 2011 acquisition of the deep-water OPL 245 oil block offshore Nigeria.

The contentious block had been handed back by operator Malabu Oil and Gas, controlled by former Nigerian petroleum resources minister, Dan Etete. In tandem, the two European energy majors paid $1.1 billion of the $1.3 billion licence acquisition monies to intermediaries.

Etete had awarded his own company OPL 245 while in government, and the Italian prosecution alleged that the $1.1 billion was used to pay bribes to Nigerian politicians and kickbacks to managers at Eni.

“After almost three years of trial, the judgment by the Court has finally established that the company, the chief executive Claudio Descalzi and the management involved in the proceedings have all behaved in a lawful and correct manner,” Eni said in a statement on Wednesday.

However, the court’s ruling was slammed by environmental and social justice groups.

“The judgment brings shame on Italy. One court has found the intermediaries of the OPL 245 deal guilty of international corruption, yet this court has found Shell and Eni not guilty. We await the full ruling of the Milan court to explain this bizarre outcome.”, commented Lanre Suraju of HEDA, a Nigerian anti-corruption group that was among the first to expose the corruption allegations surrounding the OPL 245 deal.

The Nigerian government too said it was surprised and disappointed by the verdict and would consider whether to appeal once its lawyers had read the written judgment, reported Reuters.

The written ruling, explaining the judge’s reasoning should be handed down in 90 days’ time. The court also ruled that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which participated in the trial as the victim of the alleged crime, was not entitled to compensation, noted HEDA.

Middlemen found guilty

Barnaby Pace, senior campaigner at Global Witness added: “The legal verdict is a disappointment but it will not stop us in our unrelenting quest to ensure accountability in the fossil industry. We urge the Milan prosecutor’s office to consider all options for an appeal and believe that this verdict shows just how hard it is to hold the fossil fuel industry to account.

“Two middlemen have already been found guilty for their role in this deal in a separate trial. A criminal trial of Shell and Eni’s Nigerian subsidiaries is ongoing in Nigeria while they also face an investigation in The Netherlands where Shell has said they expect to face criminal charges. The verdict does not mark the final word in this scandal for Shell and Eni.”

Shell and Eni have always maintained that the monies for completing the OPL 245 transaction were paid transparently, legally and directly into an escrow account controlled by Nigeria’s government.

Finance

Eni, Shell acquitted of $1.1 billion Nigerian corruption claim