Malabu Scandal: Abacha’s son wants court to stop Nigerian govt, Shell, Agip from operating block
Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. has asked an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to stop the sale of a $13. 5 billion deep water project located in the controversial oil block, OPL 245.
The OPL 245, regarded as one of Africa’s richest oil blocks with an estimated over 9 billion barrels of crude, was controversially awarded to Malabu in 1998 by the then petroleum minister, Dan Etete who partly owned the company through a fictional character, Kwekwu Amafegha.
The block was controversially sold to oil giants, Shell and ENI, in 2011 with a large chunk of the $1.1 billion paid ending up in private pockets including those of Mr. Etete.