Acquittal for Eni’s CEO and others accused in an oily case

AS FIRST AN engineer and later an executive climbing the ranks of Eni, Claudio Descalzi (pictured above) worked in difficult environments, from Libya to the Republic of Congo. However, the most inhospitable terrain he has had to navigate as chief executive of the Italian oil giant was in a Milan courtroom—as a defendant in a mammoth corruption trial related to a Nigerian oil deal. On March 17th the ordeal ended with the acquittal of the man who has led the Italian energy firm for seven years. Had Mr Descalzi been convicted, he could have faced eight years in jail.

All the other defendants were also found not guilty. Among them were Eni itself, its partner in the deal, Royal Dutch Shell, several of the firms’ current and former executives, and a former Nigerian oil minister. Prosecutors must now decide whether to appeal against what was probably the most important corruption-related verdict in the history of the oil industry.