AMSTERDAM: Anglo Dutch oil giant Shell has confirmed it is being investigated by Dutch officials for possible bribery in Nigeria, according to the Volkskrant.
The paper says finance ministry investigators and public prosecution department officials have visited Shell’s headquarters in The Hague in connection with the investigation. Italian paper Corriere della Sera said earlier that Shell is also being investigated by Italian authorities in a joint probe with local oil group Eni.
Both companies were involved in the same deal in Nigeria. Shell told the Volkskrant it is taking the charges seriously and cooperating fully with the investigation. The investigation centres on Shell’s acquisition of a stake in a $1bn oil block in Nigeria in 2011.
The offshore block was ‘the subject of a series of long-standing disputes with the federal government of Nigeria’, the Guardian quotes Shell as saying.
