Nigeria Oil Adviser Says $1.5 Billion Fine Illegitimate

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Nigeria's Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy, Edmund Dakouro, Wednesday said a reported $1.5 billion fine levied against Royal Dutch/Shell Group by the Nigerian senate is "illegitimate" and couldn't be enforced.

Nigeria's This Day newspaper Wednesday said the senate had directed a Shell unit, Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria, to pay $1 billion upfront and another $500 million in $100 million installments over the next five years to the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.

"Senate rulings have the force of public opinion, and are a very powerful statement, but the senate doesn't have the executive force to carry it out," Dakouro told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the Offshore Northern Seas conference.

Shell earlier Wednesday said its Nigerian unit hasn't received the reported demand from the country's senate.

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