Oil major, Royal Dutch Shell has filed a criminal complaint with Dutch authorities against a former employee over the sale of a Nigerian onshore oilfield in 2011.
A Shell spokesman said on Wednesday, that the suspected wrongdoing came to light as part of an internal investigation by Shell but is unrelated to a court case against Shell and Eni in Italy over the acquisition of the oilfield OPL 245.
“Based on what we know now from an internal investigation, we suspect a crime may have been committed by our former employee… against Shell in relation to the sale process for Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42 in Nigeria in 2011,” the spokesman said in a statement to Reuters.
“We have filed a criminal complaint with the Dutch authorities and are considering other steps we could take.”
Meanwhile Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday said they are including a complaint Royal Dutch Shell filed against a former employee in an ongoing investigation into the company’s Nigerian operations.
“The facts and circumstances as set out in the complaint were already known to us. We will include the complaint in the ongoing investigation of Shell,” prosecutors said in a statement.