Shell must pay $1 bn for Niger Delta clean-up – Group

Oil giant Shell should commit $1 billion (700,000 euros) as a first step to clean up the Niger Delta following two devastating oil spills in 2008, rights groups said Thursday.

Shell has accepted responsibility for the spills in the southern Nigerian state of Ogoniland that affected the Bodo fishing community and has agreed to pay compensation, which is currently being decided in the British courts.

But Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) accused Shell in a report of failing to act quickly enough to fix the damage and demanded the Anglo-Dutch group make the billion-dollar contribution.

“It is time this multi-billion-dollar company owns up, cleans up and pays up,” said Aster van Kregten, Nigeria researcher for London-based Amnesty International.

“Shell’s failure to promptly stop and clean up oil spills in Bodo has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of people.”

A spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian operations insisted discussions were underway with the government to establish a clean-up fund for the Niger Delta and said efforts had been made to clean up after the Bodo spills.

Ogoniland has been blighted by oil pollution for decades and a landmark UN environment agency report released in August said the region might require the world’s biggest ever clean-up.

The United Nations Environment Programme report called for the oil industry and the Nigerian government to contribute $1 billion for a clean-up fund.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), the Shell subsidiary which operates a joint venture in Nigeria in which the state oil company has a major stake, insisted its bid to clean up after the spills had been hampered.

“The reality is that our efforts to undertake (a) clean-up in Bodo have been hampered by the repeated impact of saboutage and bunkering spills,” the tapping of pipelines to steal oil, said an SPDC spokesman.

But van Kregten said: “This claim has been strongly disputed by the communities and NGOs who point out that the process of collecting data on oil spills is flawed.”

The SPDC spokesman said the subsidiary was already implementing many of the recommendations in the report.

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Shell faces $410M payout over Nigeria oil spills

Royal Dutch Shell faces having to pay compensation of potentially more than £250m ($410m) after the Anglo-Dutch oil group admitted liability for two spills in Nigeria following a legal claim brought in the UK.

The agreement comes after a class-action lawsuit was brought in the High Court by the Bodo Community in the Niger Delta against Shell and its subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

Martyn Day, of law firm Leigh Day acting for the Nigerians, said that he was pleased Shell had admitted liability and agreed to concede to the English jurisdiction and court system.

The compensation set to be paid to the 69,000 Nigerians affected by damage caused by the leaks is thought to be in excess of £250m. Most of those who have brought claims are fishermen and typically earn about £3,000 to £5,000 a year on average.

The award compensates them for their loss of livelihood over the past three years and also reflects the fact that it could still take a year or even two years to complete the clean-up during which time they may be unable to fish.

The SPDC said it "has always acknowledged that the two spills which affected the Bodo community, and which are the subject of this legal action, were operational".

"As such, SPDC will pay compensation in accordance with Nigerian law," it added.

The case against Shell results from two oil leaks in 2008-09 that caused devastating damage to the environment and the waterways in particular to the fishing community of the Bodo community.

Mr Day called this one of the "most devastating oil spills the world has ever seen" but said it had largely gone unnoticed. The total amount of oil spilt was approximately 20 per cent of the amount that leaked into the Gulf of Mexico following BP's disaster last year.

Mr Day added there was an increasing trend for these type of compensation claims to be brought in London's High Court rather than being fought out in local courts where litigation could last for years.

A European Court of Justice ruling in 2005 has made it easier for groups of litigants to launch legal action in the European courts and gives claimants an automatic right to sue in the defendant's home country.

Mr Day added: "The Nigerian courts have found it very difficult to deal with these cases speedily and the claimants have rarely received compensation as a result."

The lawsuit was only filed in the High Court in April and so the admissions by Shell have come relatively early on in the litigation process.

Shell says the majority of spills in the Niger Delta are not due to operational failures but result from third-party interference such as theft of equipment and sabotage. In 2011, 13 spills in the Bodo area were caused by illegal activity, it claimed.

Since 2006, Shell has been dealing with an average of 169 oil spills per year, slightly fewer than the 175 average for the 2005-09 period in the Niger Delta.

Last year, the company recorded 32 operational spills in the Niger Delta, down from 37 in 2009.

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