Italian authorities have searched the offices of an Eni SpA subsidiary as part of an inquiry into a bribery scheme relating to the building of natural gas facilities in Nigeria, police sources said on Saturday.
They confirmed a report in Corriere della Sera newspaper on the opening of the probe by Milan prosecutors and the Friday search of the offices in San Donato, a Milan suburb.
Two managers of the former Snamprogetti oilfield services unit had been named as being under investigation, the sources said. Snamprogetti is now part of Saipem SpA , a subsidiary of oil company Eni.
The Milan probe is the Italian portion of an international inquiry into $182 million in bribes paid from 1994 to 2004 by the TSKJ consortium to secure $6 billion euros in contracts to build Nigerian liquefied natural gas facilities.
The group was headed by former Halliburton Co unit KBR. It included Snamprogetti, France’s Technip SA , and Japan’s JGC Corp .
An Eni spokeswoman said: “On the facts relating to the TSKJ consortium arising from the period before 2004, there is an inquiry under way by Milan prosecutors, the SEC (the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and the U.S. Justice Department who will ascertain the facts and ultimately responsibility.”
She added: “Eni and Saipem-Snamprogetti have voluntarily been in contact with investigators for some time to provide them the utmost cooperation.”