Nigeria should revoke oil rights for which Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA paid $1.1 billion, a parliamentary committee said, alleging that the acquisition process was “highly flawed.†Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9 billion barrels of crude reserves worth $1 trillion…
By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo: July 19, 2013
Nigeria should revoke oil rights for which Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Eni SpA (ENI) paid $1.1 billion, a parliamentary committee said, alleging that the acquisition process was “highly flawed.â€
Shell and Eni jointly bought Oil Prospecting License 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister, in 2011. Located in the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea, it is estimated to hold at least 9 billion barrels of crude reserves worth $1 trillion, according to a probe report by a House of Representatives committee filed as a public record and provided to Bloomberg yesterday.
“Unfortunately our national interest, knowingly or unknowingly, was ceded away to the two oil majors,†the committee said. The sale violates a law to promote increased Nigerian ownership of oil assets by giving foreign companies 100 percent ownership as well as the country’s tax regulations, the report said, alleging a “lack of transparency and full disclosure†by Shell in acquiring the license.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, with Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:US), Chevron Corp. (CVX:US), Total SA (FP) and Eni running joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump more than 90 percent of the country’s oil. The West African nation produced 1.83 million barrels a day of oil in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Shell companies have acted at all times in accordance with both Nigerian law and the terms of the OPL 245 resolution agreement,†Precious Okolobo, a Lagos-based spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mailed response to questions. Eni, based in Rome, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Technical Partnership
Malabu was awarded the rights to OPL 245 in 1998 by former military dictator Sani Abacha, whose son, Mohammed Abacha, got a 50 percent stake while 30 percent went to Etete, his oil minister. The company then formed a technical partnership with Shell.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, elected a year after Abacha died in 1998, canceled the license in 2001 without giving any reason and awarded it to Shell a year later. Malabu challenged the decision in court, saying the government revoked its license unfairly, leading to the agreement to sell its interests to Shell and Eni, now holding 50 percent each.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s government resolved the dispute over the license in a “satisfactory and holistic manner†after it considered a 2006 settlement reached by Malabu Oil and Shell, the government’s indigenous policy and the fact that Shell has “substantially de-risked†the oil license, Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke said yesterday in an e-mailed response.
Calls to Malabu Oil on numbers listed for its Lagos office didn’t go through.
“Our findings could not indicate anywhere Malabu Oil willingly inclined to relinquish the oil block,†the parliamentary report said. “Where such inclination is presumed, they were rather forced on the company.â€
To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at [email protected]
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
