Shell and Eni SpA buy rights to Nigeria oil field

Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Italian oil firm Eni SpA say they have purchased rights to an offshore oil field near Nigeria’s coast that could hold as much of 9 billion barrels of oil.

Shell and Eni said in statements Thursday their Nigerian subsidiaries would each own 50 percent of the block. The statements said Eni would be responsible for operating the block.

The oil field had been held by a company associated with a former oil minister in Nigeria during the rule of military dictator Sani Abacha. Shell and Eni did not disclose the price paid for the field, but said it made payment for it through the federal government.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.