* Milan court acquits all parties in OPL 245 bribery trial
* Court acquits Eni CEO and other executives
* Nigerian government says it was surprised by ruling
* TIMELINE-Nigeria's OPL 245 bribery scandal
(Adds Descalzi, Shell CEO, Global Witness comment)
By Emilio Parodi and Stephen Jewkes
MILAN, March 17 (Reuters) - A Milan court acquitted energy
company Eni, its chief executive and Royal Dutch Shell
on Wednesday in the oil industry's biggest corruption
case revolving around the $1.3 billion acquisition of a Nigerian
oilfield a decade ago.
The sentence, read out in court by judge Marco Tremolada,
came more than three years after the trial first began and after
74 hearings. Tremolada said the companies and defendants had
been acquitted as there was no case to answer.
Rulings in Italy can be appealed and only become enforceable
once they are final.
The Nigerian government said it was surprised and
disappointed by the verdict and would consider whether to appeal
once its lawyers had read the written judgment.
The long-running case revolved around the $1.3 billion
purchase by Eni and Shell of the OPL 245 offshore oilfield in
Nigeria in 2011 from Malabu Oil and Gas, a company owned by
former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete.
Prosecutors alleged that just under $1.1 billion of that
amount was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen, including
Etete, a convicted money launderer who acquired the field in
1998 when he was oil minister under military ruler Sani Abacha.
Prosecutors had called for Eni and Shell to be fined, for a
number of past and present managers from both firms, including
Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi, to be jailed and for $1.1
billion to be confiscated from the defendants.
The defendants all denied any wrongdoing.
"This is a huge blow for natural resource governance and
transparency in Nigeria," said Matthew Page, associate fellow at
the Chatham House Africa programme. "The OPL 245 deal has been a
multi-layered tale of corruption and malfeasance and
international complicity that's been going on for two decades."
"This judgment will continue to sting, as it is a real and
visible defeat for global and Nigerian anti-corruption efforts,"
he said.
NOT THE FINAL WORD
The verdict comes at a time when investors are putting more
and more pressure on oil companies both to fight climate change
and come up with sustainable business models that take into
account the social impact of their activities.
Shell and Eni also face scrutiny over the OPL 245 deal in
other countries. In March, 2019, Dutch prosecutors said they
were preparing criminal charges against Shell and Nigeria has
also launched an investigation.
Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said it had always
maintained the 2011 purchase of OPL 245 was legal and designed
to resolve a decade-long dispute over its ownership.
"At the same time, this has been a difficult learning
experience for us," he said in a statement. "Shell is a company
that operates with integrity and we work hard every day to
ensure our actions not only follow the letter and spirit of the
law, but also live up to society’s wider expectations of us."
The lawyer for Eni's Descalzi, also welcomed the decision.
"After dozens of hearings, thousands of documents analysed
and testimonies, we have finally reached a judgment that
restores Descalzi's professional reputation and Eni's role as a
leading energy company and the pride of our country," said Paola
Severino, Descalzi's lawyer and a former justice minister.
The defendants said the purchase price for OPL 245 was paid
into a Nigerian government account and subsequent transfers were
beyond their control.
The exploration licence for the field, some 150 km (95
miles) off the Niger Delta, has not been revoked but it has not
been converted into a mining licence and no oil has been
produced.
Senior campaigner at Global Witness, Barnaby Pace, urged the
prosecution to appeal Wednesday's verdict.
"Two middlemen have already been found guilty for their role
in this deal in a separate trial. A criminal trial of Shell and
Eni's Nigerian subsidiaries is ongoing in Nigeria while they
also face an investigation in The Netherlands." he said.
"Today's verdict does not mark the final word in this
scandal for Shell and Eni."
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, Alfredo Faieta and Stephen Jewkes
in Milan, Libby George in Lagos, Shadia Nasralla and Ron Bousso
in London; Editing by David Clarke)
