Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Eni (ENI.MI) reiterated on Monday that neither they nor their personnel had been involved in any wrongdoing in Nigeria, including improper payments to Nigerian officials.
The comments follow media reports alleging how hundreds of millions of dollars from the two companies were used for illicit payments.
A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday claims to show transactions worth $1.3 billion made in 2010-2011 that Shell and Eni paid to acquire an exploration licence for an offshore oil block known as OPL 245.
The money was paid to the Nigerian government, but BuzzFeed and Il Sole said documents showed Shell’s top executives at the time knew those sums would go to Malabu Oil and Gas, a front company connected to former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
Attempts by Reuters to contact Etete have been unsuccessful.
In emailed comments, an Eni spokesman said the allegations in the reports were not supported by the facts, the underlying agreements or the independent investigations conducted to date.
“Neither Eni nor Shell paid any monies other than as contemplated and recorded by the Block Resolution Agreement and did not pay to Malabu, to Chief Dan Etete or to any public officer,” the spokesman said.
Shell said that “based on our review of the Prosecutor of Milan’s file and all of the information and facts available to Shell, we do not believe that there is a basis to prosecute Shell. Furthermore, we are not aware of any evidence to support a case against any former or current Shell employee”.
In an emailed statement, Shell added that if the evidence proves improper payments were made, “it is Shell’s position that none of those payments were made with its knowledge, authorization or on its behalf”.
Courts in Nigeria and Milan are investigating the 2011 purchase of the block, which industry figures suggest could hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil.
Italian prosecutors are working with an anti-fraud team in the Netherlands that raided Shell’s The Hague headquarters in February 2016 in relation to the investigation.
A Nigerian court ordered the asset temporarily seized in January at the request of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, but the seizure was later overturned.
(Reporting by Libby George and Karolin Schaps in London and Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Writing by Libby George and Francesca Landini; Editing by Dale Hudson)
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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.
