TheCable

Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources, says President Bola Tinubu has directed that all disputes surrounding the OPL 245 oil block should be amicably resolved. 

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Lokpobiri said the president’s directive was issued to the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd).

“The previous administration initiated most of the cases that we are talking about today, and they took us to court, while we took Eni, Malabu, others to different courts in Europe, Canada, etc, but we didn’t win any of the cases,” he said.

“To even shock you, there is one that got us a penalty of over £70 million.” 

Nigeria had sued JP Morgan for £1.7 billion, accusing the bank of negligence for transferring $800 million of the proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 to Malabu, the original allotees of the oil block.

The case was dismissed by a UK court which ruled that Nigeria was not defrauded.

TheCable confirmed that the actual award of damages against Nigeria for defamation was £22.25 million.

“So we have been fined by the court. Who will pay that? You and I will pay that, or our children will pay, because it is a judgment debt,” he said.

“And in all the ones that we pursued both in Switzerland and other locations, we have no evidence to get conviction.

“And so it makes sense for this government to come and say that for 28 years, this block has been idle.

“This block is a prolific block that will add so much value to our economy, so let’s see how we can resolve the problem.”

He said the federal government has commenced discussions with Eni and Shell on a resolution. 

“We are transparent about this process. We have full government backing in resolving this matter. Everything is being done transparently,” the minister said.

“This process has nothing to benefit the president as an individual. His interest is the welfare of Nigerians and to attract investments to the sector for Nigerians to benefit from God-given natural resources.”

THE OPL 245 SAGA

On April 9, 1998, the federal military government awarded OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, which was said to be owned by Mohammed Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, former head of state, and Etete, who was the petroleum minister at the time.

On July 2, 2001, President Olusegun Obasanjo revoked Malabu’s licence and assigned the oil block to Shell — without a public bid.

Malabu went to court and ownership was reverted to it in 2006 after it reached an out-of-court settlement with the federal government.

Shell fought back and commenced arbitration against Nigeria but when President Goodluck Jonathan came to power in 2010 and implemented the consent judgment returning the oil block to Malabu, the controversy appeared to have been resolved with Shell and Eni agreeing to buy the oil block from the Nigerian company for $1.1 billion.

The oil companies also paid $210 million as signature bonus to the federal government of Nigeria.

But activists launched an international campaign, alleging that the OPL 245 deal was fraudulent and that the proceeds were used to bribe government officials.

When former President Buhari came to office in 2015, his administration started a series of litigation against Royal Dutch Shell, Eni/Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE), Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD) Ltd, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Company (SNEPCO) — as well as Mohammed Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation, over allegations of fraud and corruption in the OPL 245 deal.

The parties in the case all denied the allegations.

The Nigerian government lost all the suits filed abroad on the allegations of fraud and corruption in the OPL case.

In March 2021, an Italian court acquitted Shell, Eni and all defendants of corruption charges in the deal.

The prosecutors subsequently filed an appeal but Celestina Gravina, the Italian attorney general, said the case “has no basis… in fact, it should have finished earlier” and it was struck out in July 2022.

In another case, the high court of England and Wales ruled in July 2022 that Nigeria did not prove its allegations against Adoke.

The EFCC recently conceded to Adoke’s no case submission in his trial at the federal high court (FCT), admitting that there was “paucity of evidence” to substantiate its claims of conspiracy and money laundering against him.