By Stephen Jewkes and Libby George
MILAN/LAGOS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Eni has filed a
request for arbitration against Nigeria at the World Bank's
dispute settlement body and plans to argue that the country's
failure to allow it to exploit an oilfield it acquired with
Royal Dutch Shell nearly a decade ago breaches their
investment agreement, court documents show.
OPL 245, an offshore field awarded to the two oil companies
in 2011, is the subject of multiple court cases worldwide,
including a criminal case in Milan in which the Nigerian
government alleges roughly $1.1 billion of payments from the
companies was siphoned to politicians and middlemen.
Shell and Eni have denied any wrongdoing.
Eni has submitted a request for arbitration against Nigeria
with the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of
Investor Disputes (ICSID), of which Nigeria is a member state, a
posting on ICSID's website shows. It shows the case was
registered on Oct. 9 but does not give details. Shell is not a
party to the request, according to the posting.
An Eni spokesman said the request for arbitration was aimed
at protecting its investments and investors, and that it was
confident of a satisfactory solution for both parties.
The Italian oil major also filed a request for evidence on
Oct. 6 with a court in the U.S. state of Delaware which it says
it wants to use in the ICSID arbitration and in the Milan case,
according to documents from the court seen by Reuters.
"Specifically, Eni (through its subsidiaries), will contend
that Nigeria's actions violate multiple provisions of the
bilateral investment treaty by pursuing a campaign of unfounded
claims against Eni and improperly conditioning the conversion of
OPL 245 into an OML," Eni's filing to the court says.
An oil prospecting license (OPL) allows a company to explore
for oil, but once it finds recoverable oil, the licence needs to
be converted to an oil mining license (OML) for it to be able to
produce and export.
Nigeria's presidency declined to comment when asked about
Eni's court filing and the arbitration case. Neither the
attorney general's office nor the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources immediately responded to requests for comment.
In the Delaware court documents, Eni said it believed "third
parties" were behind Nigeria's lack of action on its request to
convert OPL 245 into an oil mining license and on its efforts to
claim some $1 billion in damages.
The company said it was seeking information from Poplar
Falls LLC and private investment management firm Drumcliffe
Partners LLC, U.S. companies registered in Delaware, on any
agreement they have to fund Nigeria's litigation efforts.
Asked about Eni's court filing, Drumcliffe said it was
working with Nigeria's asset recovery agency to recover
fraudulent payments made in relation to OPL 245 and that it
would "oppose Eni's efforts to the fullest."
"What is immediately clear is that Eni is pursuing every
avenue to avoid accountability for its role in one of the
largest frauds in the history of the oil and gas industry," Jim
Little, principal of Drumcliffe, said in a statement.
Reuters could not reach a representative of Poplar Falls for
comment.
(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja
and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller and
Nick Tattersall)