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Nigerian Court Dismisses Claims Against Eni, Petrobras Units

Nigerian Court Dismisses Claim Eni, Petrobras Illegally Sold Oil

(Bloomberg) -- A Nigerian high court dismissed the government’s claims that local units of Eni SpA and Petroleo Brasileiro SA illegally exported crude oil to the U.S.

Justice Mojisola Olatoregun said Wednesday in Lagos, the commercial capital, that the government could not provide evidence to back its lawsuit against Agip, a subsidiary of Eni, and Petrobras’s Brasoil.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration sued the companies as well as the local arms of Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA in 2016, claiming they failed to declare or under-declared 57 million barrels of oil shipped to U.S. ports between 2011 and 2014, according to court documents viewed by Bloomberg.

The cases against Chevron, Shell and Total are ongoing. They’ve denied any wrongdoing.

An appeal has been filed in another court in Lagos, said Ituah Imhanze, lawyer representing Nigerian government.

READ: Nigeria Seeks Billions in Oil Lawsuits as Budget Squeezed

To contact the reporter on this story: Tope Alake in Lagos at talake@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Paul Wallace

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