Shell and Eni have asked a Nigerian court to overturn a temporary forfeiture of an oil field in the African country, a news report said.
The court transferred operations of the asset, thought to contain 9.23 billion barrels of oil, to the federal government last month.
The court was looking into corruption allegations surrounding the $1.3billion purchase of block OPL 245 in 2011, according to court papers seen by Reuters.
Shell said the Nigerian authorities had conducted “a gross abuse of process and an abuse of power” to get a court order for the forfeiture, Reuters reported, citing a separate set of documents.
Italy’s Eni and Anglo-Dutch firm Shell confirmed they had filed motions to lift the court order, but declined further comment.
The Nigerian court will hear the case on February 27.
Yesterday, Shell said it had received notice of a request for indictment related to the settlement of disputes over the block.
A tribunal in Milan has fixed the preliminary hearing for April 20, Reuters reported.
“We don’t believe a request for indictment is justified and we are confident that this will be determined in the next stages of the proceedings. We continue to take this matter seriously and co-operate with the authorities,” a Shell spokesperson was cited as saying by Reuters.
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