Ex-president to testify in OPL 245 case

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was called to testify by the lower house of parliament on Wednesday about the controversial USD 1.3-billion sale of OPL 245 to Shell and Eni.

The 2011 transfer of the block has been investigated by Nigerian and Italian courts over alleged corruption.

At Eni’s annual shareholder meeting in April 2017, board chairwoman Emma Marcegaglia said the company had only ever dealt with the Nigerian government. The same month Shell issued a statement to Reuters that it knew some of the payments made for the licence would go to Malabu Oil and Gas, in which former oil minister and convicted money launderer Dan Etete holds a large stake, “to settle its claim on the block.”

In January 2017, a Nigerian court had transferred the OPL 245 assets and operations back to the government in relation to the case. Eni and Shell subsequently initiated separate legal procedures to have the forfeiture declared void and succeeded.