Royal Dutch Shell yesterday disclosed that the federal government’s recent claims that it owed Nigeria billions of dollars of unpaid oil and gas-related taxes could delay the development of its major oil field – the Bonga South West deepwater oil field located off the coast of the country. The federal government recently ordered several major international oil companies (IOCs) to pay nearly $20 billion in taxes it said were owed the government. Reuters quoted Shell as saying yesterday that the country’s tax claims lacked merit, and could see the Final Investment Decision (FID) on Bonga South West slip into 2020 instead of 2019 that was initially thought. The report quoted Shell’s Head of Upstream, Mr. Andy Brown, as saying on the side-lines of the International Petroleum Week conference in London that the tax claim lacked merit. “It is something that has gone through the courts in Nigeria, […]