Oil group Shell and Dutch interest group Milieudefensie have reached an agreement to deal with several oil spills in Nigeria. As part of that deal, Shell has to pay fifteen million euros to stakeholders in the African country, including local communities.
Shell settles for fifteen million euros in the event of oil spills in Nigeria. This is the result of negotiations with the Dutch interest group Milieudefensie, the parties wrote in a joint statement on Friday. In January 2021, the court in The Hague ruled on appeal that Shell was responsible for the consequences of the oil spills in the Niger Delta and ordered the oil company to install a leak detection system and pay compensation. The parties have been negotiating the amount for almost two years.
The case was already filed in 2009 by four Nigerian farmers, none of whom are now alive. The oil spills occurred between 2004 and 2007 in the Nigerian villages of Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo. Due to the spill of a total of hundreds of thousands of liters of oil, the land is no longer usable and fishing grounds have been lost. Shell has since cleaned up the oil and, by court order, installed a new system that can detect leaks at an early stage. Shell stresses that the transaction contains “no admissions of liability”.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands are happy with the result, says director Donald Pols NRC hand knife. ‘We have negotiated on behalf of 7,000 people in Nigeria. I’m very happy with this figure.” The amount will be distributed among the children of the original applicants and their communities. “We were able to get everything out of it.”
Legal precedent
Although a figure of fifteen million euros for a billionaire group like Shell may seem low, according to Pols the amount of the transaction must be seen separately from the size of the company. ‘We want to set a legal precedent and send a signal to all major polluters in developing countries. You can no longer pollute without consequences. We show that it can cost millions.’
Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo are not the only villages in Nigeria affected by oil pollution. The African country, rich in oil, has been grappling for years with problems due to leaks in pipelines. According to Shell, this is due to sabotage and theft of oil.
Pols tells NRC his organization has no immediate plans to assist more Nigerians in lawsuits against the oil company. “Let’s hope they don’t need us. But if they come near us, we will help them.’
