President Bola Tinubu has restored the ownership of OPL 245 to European oil majors Eni and Shell, Peoples Gazette learnt this week, all but assuring an end to a yearslong corruption inquiry into the massive yet highly controversial deepwater oilfield.



But the president agreed to the deal largely to expand his own riches when he was supposed to maximise its benefits for the Nigerian people, according to two officials familiar with the development. Months ago, as a precursor to the agreement finalised in London and Paris over the past week, Eni had transferred its onshore assets to Oando, run by the president’s nephew Wale Tinubu.



The Gazette was told that there was an arrangement brokered by Mr Tinubu’s controversial ally Gilbert Chagoury that helped Oando acquire Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd and other Nigerian assets of Eni towards the end of 2023. The president also withdrew all existing cases against Shell and Eni from international tribunals and allowed both firms to take back control of OPL 245 based on the old contract under Goodluck Jonathan and without fresh dues to Nigeria.



Following the transfer, which came in September 2023, Oando rapidly doubled its oil reserves to nearly one billion barrels, the company said. Both Eni and Oando did not disclose the amount involved, saying it was “price sensitive.” American investment banker Jefferies Group, however, said the deal was around $500 million.



The sale appeared to have landed a hitherto struggling Oando its biggest-ever payday just within the first six months of its CEO’s uncle, believed to own a secret interest in the firm, being Nigerian president.



Once a dealer

The deal came last week after Nigerian officials departed Abuja on January 23 for London, where a so-called “new resolution agreement” was entered with representatives of the two oil firms. Those The Gazette heard were on the trip included state petroleum minister Heineken Lokpobiri, head of Nigerian upstream regulator NUPRC Gbenga Komolafe, attorney-general Lateef Fagbemi and anti-graft chief Ola Olukoyede.

After signing the deal in London, the officials left for Paris to meet the president with the details, The Gazette heard. Mr Lokpobiri mounted enormous pressure on the Nigerian team to ensure the deal was reached, a source said.



“He kept saying the president had an interest in the deal,” an official said. “We later found out that the deal was the main reason the president travelled to Paris.”



One seething official feared the agreement could backfire and ensnare Nigeria in another round of international corruption controversy. Already, the newly revamped national oil company NNPC had distanced itself from the deal, saying it was never consulted by Eni despite holding interest in the business as a joint venture.



In a September 4 letter to Eni, NNPC decried the Oando sale as a major breach and threatened to explore options towards reversing it and holding the Italian group accountable.



NNPC H

But Eni promptly fired back, saying it was under no obligation to inform its Nigerian counterpart before disposing of the assets.



“NNPC has a pre-emption right on the JV shares, but Eni doesn’t have any contractual obligation to inform beforehand NNPC about the deal, also because the information was price sensitive for the potential buyer,” the firm stated.



The Gazette heard that the NNPC has since backed down after learning of the president’s involvement in the contract. A spokesperson for the firm did not answer a call seeking comments.



The deal appeared to suggest that Mr Tinubu was not ready to let go of his reputation as one of Nigeria’s fabled plutocrats, another official said this week.



“We thought that he would want to use the office of the president to rehabilitate himself,” a senior administration aide told The Gazette under anonymity on Tuesday evening. “But it seems that he spends every day trying to validate his worst inclinations as a dyed-in-the-wool con man.”



Prior to his election in February 2023, Mr Tinubu was the subject of a widely publicised U.S. court document that detailed his involvement in narcotics activities between the 1980s and 1990s. He was also previously exposed by The Gazette to have used his businesses to loot the Lagos treasury to the tune of billions of dollars.



Months after his election, the president was found to have gamed his way into power using falsified academic records in violation of the Nigerian Constitution. The Supreme Court sidestepped the case to keep him in power. It was the second time the now-Nigerian leader would escape accountability for forgery, coming over a decade after a federal prosecutor charged and subsequently withdrew a criminal case against him over a slew of fraudulent submissions to the electoral office INEC when he successfully sought office as Lagos governor.

Mr Tinubu has taken initial measures that convinced a section of the country about his readiness to combat corruption. He recently proactively suspended a minister accused of mismanagement, and queried another believed to be tied to the same scandal.



This week, the president also asked the NNPC to direct its revenues to the central bank, earning widespread accolades from public finance experts, including prominent members of political opposition like Kingsley Moghalu.



But beaming a spotlight on his handling of OPL-245 ownership could potentially remind Nigerians of the president’s unsavoury past and keep him under close scrutiny, one of his aides said.



Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga won’t speak on the deal when reached Tuesday night, suggesting instead that only NNPC and NUPRC can clarify questions surrounding the deal. Shell, Eni and Oando did not comment between Monday and Tuesday.



Lessons discarded

The oil prospecting licence 245 in Nigeria’s offshore deepwater has courted controversy since April 29, 1998, when it was first awarded by Sani Abacha to Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, a shady shell business linked to ex-convict Dan Etete, who was at the time serving as Nigeria’s petroleum minister. Eni estimated that the field could readily produce a reserve capacity of 560 million barrels, with experts saying the block’s actual reserve ranged from six to nine billion barrels.



A 2018 report by HEDA and Global Witness found Nigeria stood to earn roughly $6 billion via long-term mining from the field, which sits about 150 kilometres south of Nigeria in the country’s territorial waters in the Gulf of Guinea.



deepwater oil platform

Deepwater oil platform(Credit: Nola.com)

In March 2001, Malabu transferred 40 per cent of its ownership to Shell at $18 million. But a few months later, in July, President Olusegun Obasanjo abruptly withdrew ownership of the field from Shell and gave sole ownership to state-run NNPC.



In 2002, NNPC transferred full ownership of the block again to Shell at a signature bonus of $210 million, which was locked in an escrow until all disputes had been resolved with the government, Malabu and other parties. In 2011, Shell partnered with Eni to pay the $210 million, saying it was the largest ever received by Nigeria for a prospecting licence to date.



The 2011 payment later became one of the biggest scandals of the Jonathan administration and, evidently, the biggest embarrassment Nigeria suffered abroad in its handling of oil deals. Dubbed Malabu oil scandal, it exposed how several Nigerian officials, including former attorney-general Bello Adoke, colluded with Mr Etete, a money-laundering convict, to use Nigeria as a middle-man in the murky deal. About $1.1 billion from Shell and Eni was said to have been disbursed to the Nigerian officials involved through JP Morgan.



Both Shell and Eni admitted knowledge of Mr Etete’s criminal background but, nonetheless, denied bribing him and other Nigerian officials. An Italian top court found both firms not guilty of any wrongdoing in the deal in a 2021 ruling. Mr Adoke also strongly denied any wrongdoing on behalf of himself and other Nigerian officials named with him, but a 2019 Abuja court warrant for Mr Etete’s arrest remained outstanding.



ENI, SHELL

ENI, SHELL

Still, a senior official said the president was hasty in pulling back from other lawsuits relating to the OPL 245 field that were instituted by the previous administration. Unlike Mr Tinubu, President Muhammadu Buhari rebuffed all pressure to resolve the matters outside international tribunals.



Mr Tinubu “discarded all the lessons Nigeria should have learnt from the Malabu oil scandal,” the official said under anonymity to steer clear of retribution. “His personal interest should not take precedence over Nigeria’s.”



50-50

Whereas Mr Tinubu prioritised his business interest around the deal, The Gazette was told Nigeria would benefit from a profit-sharing arrangement after the OPL 245 has successfully transformed into an extraction field due largely to a deal offered to the erstwhile Buhari administration.



One of our sources said Shell and Eni would be compelled to keep to an earlier proposal made to Mr Buhari’s government, but which was suspended until a final resolution of the matter had been reached.



Mr Buhari was pushing for a final decision on the civil liabilities of both Shell and Eni in London and Milan, respectively, before accepting an offer of 50 per cent of all proceeds from the field, according to sources. Mr Buhari’s argument was that the $1.1 billion, including the $210 signature bonus received by the Jonathan administration, that Shell and Eni paid to secure the licence in 2011 was a futile arrangement because the block should not have been awarded to Mr Etete in the first place.



Dan Etete

Dan Etete [Photo credit: Naira Metrics]

The outgone administration based its argument on Nigeria’s code of conduct statute that barred public servants from awarding federal projects to themselves. As a minister in Mr Abacha’s government, Mr Etete should not have awarded OPL 245 ownership to a firm in which he had significant interest.



With Mr Tinubu backing down from his predecessor’s $1.1 billion lawsuit against Shell and Eni in Nigeria and foreign jurisdictions, Eni also suspended its arbitration claims pending before the World Bank.



“So what we are working with now is for the president to insist on the 50 per cent that Shell and Eni proposed in the past now that the cases have been withdrawn and parties are back on the same page,” an official said. “Since he has eaten his own, he should not restrain Nigeria’s hands.”



https://gazettengr.com/exclusive-tinubu-screws-nigeria-over-in-paris-returns-opl-245-ownership-to-shell-eni-after-cornering-lucrative-onshore-assets-to-nephew-wales-oando/

I no longer care.

Una go cry tire.

Tinubu will run this government the way he likes, then prosperity will judge him.

No idiot nor nincompoop will tell him how to run his government. He is bold and courageous, and he has proven over and over that he doesn't mind who is offended by his actions. He will do what he thinks is right, and allow his conscience and history to judge him

APCNig:
Una go cry tire.

Tinubu will run this government the way he likes, then prosperity will judge him.

No idiot nor nincompoop will tell him how to run his government. He is bold and courageous, and he has proven over and over that he doesn't mind who is offended by his actions. He will do what he thinks is right, and allow his conscience and history to judge him

Posterity is already judging the failure of a president just nine months into his maladministration.

All the lies about building Lagos and being an accountant have been busted.

His kinsmen are already shouting Ebin Pa Wa and his obas are now used as suya by Fulani herdsmen.

Hmm, if cluelessness had a human body and walked upandan . . .

APCNig:
Una go cry tire.

Tinubu will run this government the way he likes, then prosperity will judge him.

Just as how prosperity posterity is currently judging the buhari you spent 8 solid years hyping here abi?

Chai! Very soon you apc hound dogs will run stark raving mad because of tinubu

When is peter obi eventually going to sue gazette to court sef?

Macphenson:


Posterity is already judging the failure of a president just nine months into his maladministration.

All the lies about building Lagos and being an accountant have been busted.

His kinsmen are already shouting Ebin Pa Wa and his obas are now used as suya by Fulani herdsmen.

His lies about Lagos has been bursted, yet your people are still running form your state of origin to slave in Lagos. Lagos is the 4th or 5th largest Economy in Africa, bigger than all the 36 states of Nigeria (Abuja is a state) combined. You need a self evaluation.

Paraman:
When is peter obi eventually going to sue gazette to court sef?

After his burial

SeeWahala:


Just as how posterity is currently judging the buhari you spent 8 solid years hyping here abi?

Chai! Very soon you apc hound dogs will run stark raving mad because of tinubu

You see your life? You are calling your family hound dogs. since we humiliated you at the election, you have all developed psychiatric disorders. You cried for 8 years of Buhari's rule, you have started another 8 years of crying during Tinubu's rule. You will still weep for another 8 years of Shettima's coming rule.

Una go cry tire

When a druggie is the presidiot what do you expect

APCNig:


You see your life? You are calling your family hound dogs. since we humiliated you at the election, you have all developed psychiatric disorders. You cried for 8 years of Buhari's rule, you have started another 8 years of crying during Tinubu's rule. You will still weep for another 8 years of Shettima's coming rule.

Una go cry tire

You humiliated me at the election, that election was just a days event. I gree

But you have been humiliating yourselves for the past 9 years of buhari and now tinubu regime, and you will still be humiliating yourself for another 3 and half years more . . .

So my emilokan warrior, answer me this . . . na who humiliate pass for inside our two?

😆

APCNig:


His lies about Lagos has been bursted, yet your people are still running form your state of origin to slave in Lagos. Lagos is the 4th or 5th largest Economy in Africa, bigger than all the 36 states of Nigeria (Abuja is a state) combined. You need a self evaluation.

When u see people working hard for 30k monthly you will easily spot them out.

How much is dollar today? Ebin Pa Wa. The oba that the fulani herdsmen used for suya never knew that the evil called APC he was instructing his subjects to vote will not be there to protect him.

E go reach ecerybody gradually.

Qwantinue

Na you igbos go tell us that posterity will judge Tinubu or if Tinubu built Lagos ?!

Same you igbos we know very well. De play !

Macphenson:


Posterity is already judging the failure of a president just nine months into his maladministration.

All the lies about building Lagos and being an accountant have been busted.

His kinsmen are already shouting Ebin Pa Wa and his obas are now used as suya by Fulani herdsmen.

I am telling especially that Igbo boy that was working for GRV wife, we know your likes very well and you are being exposed by the almighty on a daily.

Who could have attest to the fact that you won't be paid yet you keep labouring in vain like your GRV wife employed online BOT.

God forbid rubbish, imagine labouring to feed for your Nate wife, your life no get shame.

Macphenson:


When u see people working hard for 30k monthly you will easily spot them out.

How much is dollar today? Ebin Pa Wa. The oba that the fulani herdsmen used for suya never knew that the evil called APC he was instructing his subjects to vote will not be there to protect him.

E go reach ecerybody gradually.

Qwantinue

Nigeria is gone

Macphenson:


Posterity is already judging the failure of a president just nine months into his maladministration.

All the lies about building Lagos and being an accountant have been busted.

His kinsmen are already shouting Ebin Pa Wa and his obas are now used as suya by Fulani herdsmen.

His kinsmen are shouting ebi n pawa but na you dey complain the most, your Eze in Enugu was driven out of his palace because of hunger to become an Uber driver.
Any sensible person knows that PG is a fake news and propaganda merchant which has been its stock in trade since it began its publication a few years ago. Morever, what's the big deal if Eni sold its onshore assets to Oando, Shell recently sold its onshore assets to local investors for $1.3billion.

-kiss the truth!

WHO IS WRITING THIS RUBBISH?

TimeManager:

His kinsmen are shouting ebi n pawa but na you dey complain the most, your Eze in Enugu was driven out of his palace because of hunger to become an Uber driver.
Any sensible person knows that PG is a fake news and propaganda merchant which has been its stock in trade since it began its publication a few years ago. Morever, what's the big deal if Eni sold its onshore assets to Oando, Shell recently sold its onshore assets to local investors for $1.3billion.

-kiss the truth!

lol, am not complaining, am only enjoying the nextflix movie playing out in Nigeria.

You cannot get a carpenter do a human surgical operation and not have a disaterous and calamitious result.

Thats exactly what is playong out today in the country. We already saw it coming. It even came faster than we anticipated.

APCNig:
Una go cry tire.

Tinubu will run this government the way he likes, then prosperity will judge him.

No idiot nor nincompoop will tell him how to run his government. He is bold and courageous, and he has proven over and over that he doesn't mind who is offended by his actions. He will do what he thinks is right, and allow his conscience and history to judge him

Prosperity, indeed.

Olodo rabata

Elections have consequences.

Abacha was even bolder and daring. Thuvb has got it coming

APCNig:
Una go cry tire.

Tinubu will run this government the way he likes, then prosperity will judge him.

No idiot nor nincompoop will tell him how to run his government. He is bold and courageous, and he has proven over and over that he doesn't mind who is offended by his actions. He will do what he thinks is right, and allow his conscience and history to judge him

Hi

Waiting patiently to see how this one plays out.
I am not sure I can rely on Gazette Newspaper's assertion that suggests it is raining outside.

Nigeria seeks to resolve disputed oilfield issues, denies criminal liability

By Camillus Eboh
January 31, 20246:23 PM GMT

ABUJA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Nigeria wants to resolve outstanding issues around the disputed OPL 245 oil block as it seeks to attract investment to its oil and gas industry and has held talks with Shell and Eni to discuss the matter, its oil minister said on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri reiterated the government's position that there was no criminal liability on its part, or by the other parties, in the oil block deal, which has been embroiled in litigation for years.

Nigeria in November, withdrew a $1.1 billion civil claim against Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab and Eni (ENI.MI), opens new tab related to allegations of corruption in the deal, ending all litigation around the oil asset.

An Italian court in 2021 acquitted Shell, Eni, the operator of the block, and company executives of corruption allegations in the acquisition of the field a decade earlier.

"For 28 years, there has been no investment there. Nobody has benefited from the block," Lokpobiri told reporters. "The President in his wisdom directed that we should resolve the problems around OPL 245."

Lokpobiri said the government is committed to resolving the issues surrounding OPL 245 in a way that benefits all parties and has held meetings, including in London last week, with Shell and Eni to discuss the matter.

Shell and Eni did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nigeria-seeks-resolve-disputed-oilfield-issues-denies-criminal-liability-2024-01-31

Fake News

The courts were used and settled the Matter

christistruth01:
Fake News

The courts were used and settled the Matter

Give us true news!

APCNig:


You see your life? You are calling your family hound dogs. since we humiliated you at the election, you have all developed psychiatric disorders. You cried for 8 years of Buhari's rule, you have started another 8 years of crying during Tinubu's rule. You will still weep for another 8 years of Shettima's coming rule.

Una go cry tire

Mumu boy.

APCNig:


You see your life? You are calling your family hound dogs. since we humiliated you at the election, you have all developed psychiatric disorders. You cried for 8 years of Buhari's rule, you have started another 8 years of crying during Tinubu's rule. You will still weep for another 8 years of Shettima's coming rule.

Una go cry tire

Nothing good will ever come out of a drugie

christistruth01:
Fake News

The courts were used and settled the Matter

Please how was it settled?