The Federal Government, Wednesday, asked a court in Milan, Italy, to order Royal Dutch Shell and Eni to pay the sum of $1.092 billion as an immediate advance payment for damages in the Malabu oil scandal, one of the oil industry’s biggest-ever corruption scandals. During the hearing of the corruption allegation linked to the acquisition of the OPL 245 offshore field by Eni and Shell, lawyer to the Federal Government, asked for advance payment ahead of a more comprehensive damages package to be decided by the court at a later date. Reuters reported that the case involves the 2011 acquisition of oil block prospecting license by Eni and Shell, following the payment of $1.3 billion to the Nigerian government for the OPL 245 offshore field. According to Reuters, “Shell says that the 2011 agreement was a settlement of long-standing litigation following the previous allocation of the oil block by […]