UK Serious Fraud Office investigates murky Nigerian oil deal with ECA support

(Financial Times, London, 7 August 2006) The investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office into an alleged Nigerian bribery scandal involving a Halliburton subsidiary is the latest twist in a case that exemplifies the lucrative, murky and highly political world of western oil interests in Africa. A further source of controversy is the British government's role in underwriting work at the plant through more than $200m of trade insurance it supplied to MW Kellogg in 2002 as part of a plant expansion project.