Nigerian Agip Oil Company, a subsidiary of Italy oil giants, Eni, has said that it complied with the law on issues pertaining to Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245, and that it had published in its website the documents of the judicial investigation into the acquisition of OPL245 in Nigeria.
In a statement on Monday in Abuja, the international oil firm said it carried out an in-depth fact-checking on all the main points of the ongoing trial at the Milan Tribunal.
The statement said Agip had decided on this transparency initiative in the belief that the reading of the documents would allow people to verify directly how Eni acted with absolute correctness and in full compliance with the extant laws.
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Agip Oil Company said Eni outlined with broad documentary support, the key points of an affair in which international institutional bodies such as the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had recently closed their investigations without taking any action against the company.
“An operation against which accurate internal investigations carried out on several occasions by independent third parties had in the past confirmed the correctness of the operation,” the statement said.
Agip said the development of OPL245 would have brought and would bring great economic and social benefits to the Nigerian people adding that, Eni was not required to know, nor knew, the destination of the funds paid to the Malabu company by the Nigerian government, a payment authorized by the British anti-money laundering authorities.
The international oil company said the allegations of bribes to Eni managers were denied by witnesses and experts in the courtroom as well as by the Finance Guard itself in 2016.
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According to the statement, the company as part of the transaction, complied with internal procedures, international best practices and implemented any industrial, economic and process verification.
By Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja
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