TheCable

Barely four months into his appointment as chief executive officer of Eni SpA, Claudio Descalzi has been placed under investigation over corruption charges relating to the acquisition of Nigeria’s OPL-245 offshore oil block in 2011.

Descalzi is accused of bribery for the deal, which took place when he was the head of Eni’s oil division.

According to Reuters, the ownership of the controversial OPL 245 field has been in dispute for more than a decade.

In 1998, former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete, awarded the block to Malabu Oil and Gas for $20m.

Etete is the major shareholder of the Malabu Oil and Gas business.

Although Malabu paid just $2m for the stake in 1999, the field was sold to Eni and Shell in 2011 for $1.3bn in addition to a signature bonus of about $207m .

Malabu received around $1.09bn from the sale, while the Nigerian government kept the rest, the news agency quoted a British court document.

Eni, alongside Shell, is now accused of using the Nigerian government as a go-between to obscure their dealing with Etete.

Eni has also confirmed that Descalzi is being investigated.

“Eni is cooperating with the Milan prosecutor’s office and is confident that the correctness of its actions will emerge during the course of the investigation,” the company said.

In May 2014, Eni appointed Claudio Descalzi as chief executive officer and general manager. In this role, he is responsible for the management of the company, with the exception of specific responsibilities that are reserved for the board of directors and those that are not to be delegated according to the current legislation.

Descalzi is a long-standing executive at Eni and former head of its core exploration and production division. He took over in May from Paolo Scaroni, himself under investigation for alleged corruption in Algeria. However, the company denied this allegation, saying there was no evidence of illegal conduct by the group on the deal.

The Italian energy firm began operation in Nigeria in the early 1960s.

Revenues derived from the country accounted for around 8 per cent of its total output in 2013.

Following the announcement of this allegation, shares of the Italian energy company slid 2 per cent on Thursday.