Bola Tinubu has been accused of striking a shady deal with European oil giants Eni and Shell over the ownership of OPL 245, a lucrative offshore oilfield that has been at the center of a long-running corruption scandal.
According to a report by The Gazette, Tinubu agreed to restore the rights of Eni and Shell to OPL 245, which they had acquired in 2011 for $1.3 billion in a deal that was later annulled by a Nigerian court and investigated by authorities in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.
The report said that Tinubu’s decision was motivated by his personal enrichment, as he had arranged for Eni to sell its onshore assets in Nigeria to Oando, a company run by his nephew Wale Tinubu and in which he allegedly has a secret stake. The deal, worth around $500 million, boosted Oando’s oil reserves by nearly one billion barrels.
The report also said that Tinubu withdrew all legal cases against Eni and Shell from international courts and allowed them to resume operations in OPL 245 without paying any additional fees to the Nigerian government.
The deal was signed in London last week by a delegation of Nigerian officials, who then flew to Paris to brief Tinubu.
The report cited anonymous sources who said that Tinubu faced pressure from his ally Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese businessman with ties to Eni and Shell, to seal the deal.
It also quoted a disgruntled official who feared that the deal could expose Nigeria to more corruption allegations and lawsuits.
The report said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state-owned oil company, was not involved in the negotiations and expressed its dissatisfaction with the outcome. The NNPC had previously claimed a stake in OPL 245 as a joint venture partner with Eni.
OPL 245, which is estimated to hold up to nine billion barrels of oil, has been dubbed the “Malabu scandal” after the name of the company that originally owned the license.
The company was controlled by Dan Etete, a former oil minister who was convicted of money laundering in France. The 2011 deal involved the payment of $1.1 billion to a Nigerian account controlled by Etete, who allegedly distributed part of the money to politicians and intermediaries.
Eni and Shell have always denied any wrongdoing and were acquitted of corruption charges by an Italian court in March 2021.
However, the verdict is being appealed by the Italian prosecutors and the Nigerian government.
