London and Abuja reacted very differently to Dan Etete's acquittal on 17 March by the Seventh Criminal Chamber in Milan in the OPL 245 oilfield takeover case, more specifically on the conditions of the sale of the offshore block. While the Western oil majors focused on the acquital of ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi and the former head of exploration of Shell, Malcolm Brinded - both of whom were cleared of severe corruption charges - the advisors of Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari centred mainly on the fact that Dan Etete, the former longtime Nigerian oil minister under Sani Abacha, was also acquitted. Etete, who moved over to the private sector, remained active behind the scenes in the political life of the Niger Delta, where he originates from. The Italian judges concluded that the sale by Etete's firm Malabu Oil & Gas of the OPL 245 oil field to Shell and ENI had not generated the payment of any commissions. Last July, prosecutors had argued the opposite and recommended that the $1.092m transaction be retracted and that the case's main protagonists be fined and, in somes cases, jailed.
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