Nigeria Bribery Case Ends In Victory For Shell, Eni
An Italian court has ruled that oil giants Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni SPA are not guilty in a bribery case involving a Nigerian oilfield that has spanned years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Shell, Eni, and Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi, have been on trial for years in the infamous OPL 245 case. Shell, Eni, Descalzi, and others, were accused of knowing that more than $1.1 billion of the $1.3 billion deposited a decade ago into an escrow account controlled by the Nigerian government would eventually be used as bribes to secure oil drilling rights.
A UK judge dismissed a similar case over the same deal in its courts last year.
Eni and Shell have consistently said that they knew nothing about the bribes, although two middlemen in Shell and Eni were found guilty of corruption years ago in a separate trial over OPL 245.
The years-long court battle in the UK and Italy is now finally behind the oil majors.
Nigeria was hoping to net a billion from the court case—a needed windfall since OPL 245 was, for the most part, never developed.
But the battle between Shell and Nigeria is hardly over, after a Dutch court in January ruled that Nigerian citizens could sue the oil major for oil leaks in the area.
Shortly after that ruling, Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden said it would take a hard look at its operations onshore Nigeria after being hit with chronic issues with theft, illegal refining, and sabotage in the Niger Delta—the likely cause of several of the leaks that it may now be sued over.
Shell continues to operate some 340 oil wells across Nigeria.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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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.
