Burden of Service

In 2011, the Nigerian government brokered a $1.3 billion deal between Royal Dutch Shell, Eni S.p.A. of Italy and Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd of Nigeria for one of Africa's richest oil fields ("OPL 245"). The transaction—finalised after thirteen years of mutual suspicion, bitter litigation, emotional blackmail and dirty intrigues—has caught global attention and attracted criminal proceedings. The middlemen are now in jail and officials of the international oil companies are facing trial in an I