Latest development in controversial OPL 245, an oil field reputed to be one of Africa’s biggest, has revealed that Dutch prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell, one of the major multinationals involved case.
“We have been informed by the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office that they are nearing the conclusion of their investigation and are preparing to prosecute Royal Dutch Shell plc for criminal charges directly or indirectly related to the 2011 settlement of disputes over Oil Prospecting License 245 (OPL 245) in Nigeria,” Royal Dutch Shell said in a statement.
Shell and the other multi-national company, Eni have strongly denied that they knew of any corruptions linked in the OPL 245 case, and have said they don’t think bribes were paid at all.
A spokeswoman for the Dutch prosecutors said: “Based on the preliminary criminal investigation, public prosecutors concluded that there are prosecutable offences.”
While an additional trial raises the risk of financial penalties for Shell and brings the details of its work in Nigeria into focus for its shareholder base in the Netherlands, the news didn’t immediately disturb investors as Shell’s B shares in London rose slightly at the start of trading on Friday.
Recall, in 2016 investigators from the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Service and the public prosecutor’s office raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague in connection with the OPL 245 deal.
An Italian court in Milan is already investigating the case which involved four former Royal Dutch Shell staff members including former executive director for Shell’s Upstream International operations Malcolm Brinded and two former MI6 agents Guy Colegate, a business adviser; and John Copleston, a strategic investment adviser employed by Shell for paying millions of dollars in bribes in order to acquire a lucrative oil exploration and drilling license in an oil block, which is said to have about 9 billion barrels of crude oil.
The deal was struck only five days after the company was incorporated with three shareholders; Mohammed Sani Abacha , Kweku Amafagha (a fake name created by Nigeria’s ex-oil minister Dan Etete) and Hassan Hindu (wife of a former Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK) as Etete illegally awarded himself the oil block and paid only $2 million out of the $20 million legally required by the state.
Nigeria’s OPL 245 is one of the biggest sources of untapped oil reserves on the African continent with reserves estimated at 9 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.
