The primary case revolved round a deal through which Eni and Shell acquired the OPL 245 offshore oilfield in 2011 in Nigeria.
An appeals court docket in Milan has rejected Nigeria’s $1.1bn compensation request towards Italian power group Eni and British oil and fuel firm Shell in civil proceedings regarding a $1.3bn oilfield deal.
The choice was learn out within the court docket on Friday.
In July, prosecutors had dropped associated felony proceedings, clearing Eni and Shell, in addition to high managers, together with Eni Chief Govt Claudio Descalzi, in one of many international oil business’s greatest alleged corruption circumstances.
“We’re happy that these civil proceedings have been dismissed,” Shell stated in an emailed remark to the Reuters information company.
“This follows the Milan felony tribunal’s discovering that there was no case to reply for Shell or its former workers after they have been totally acquitted in 2021, a choice that was upheld in July 2022, when felony proceedings ended,” it added.
Eni had no rapid remark.
The primary case revolved round a deal through which Eni and Shell acquired the OPL 245 offshore oilfield in 2011 for $1.3bn, to settle a longstanding dispute over possession.
Prosecutors alleged that about $1.1bn of the entire quantity was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen in Nigeria, then Africa’s largest oil producer.
The oil bloc was initially owned by an area firm the place controversial former Petroleum Minister Dan Etete had main stakes.
A lawyer representing Nigeria within the proceedings added the nation was nonetheless deciding whether or not to enchantment the choice at Italy’s high administrative court docket.
Paperwork explaining the explanations behind Friday’s choice can be made obtainable in 90 days.