Nigeria has broken up the OPL 245 oil block into four new assets to be operated by Eni and Shell a source told Reuters, potentially settling the future of the field at the centre of one of the oil industry’s biggest historic corruption trials.

The agreement clears the way for the development of OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s biggest deepwater reserves that has remained untapped for almost three decades amid overlapping lawsuits in multiple countries.

The final contracts are expected to be signed starting Monday, said the source familiar with the situation. Nigeria’s government had signalled for years that it was keen to find a solution that would bring the block into production.

The source wished to remain anonymous as they are not authorised to comment on government policy before an official announcement.

Initially awarded in 1998 to Malabu, a company linked to former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, the licence was later sold to Shell and Eni.

Italian prosecutors then alleged that most of the $1.3 billion purchase price for the licence for OPL 245 was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen.

The two European energy giants and some of their former and current executives, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, faced trial in Italy but all were acquitted in 2021, having denied all wrongdoing.

Eni and Shell declined to comment. Shell and Nigeria’s state-owned oil company NNPC had no immediate comment.

REUTERS