A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell was partly responsible for oil pollution in the Niger Delta, but said the company was not liable for four of the five charges brought against it. (from ft.com)
In relation to one spill it ordered the Shell subsidiary to pay compensation to a local farmer, saying the company had neglected its duty of care.
The case revolved around the issue of oil spills in the Niger Delta, which have blighted Nigeria’s main oil-producing region for decades.Shell argues that the damage is caused by sabotage and oil theft or “bunkering”, which takes places on an industrial scale in the Delta. Environmental groups say Shell does not do enough to maintain and protect its oil infrastructure in the region.
Shell welcomed the verdict, but Friends of the Earth, the pressure group that brought the charges, expressed disappointment and said it would appeal.
“We have mixed feelings,” said Geert Ritsema of FoE, saying he was unhappy that four of the charges were dismissed. On the other hand, “this is the first time that Shell has been ordered by the court to pay compensation for damage. The Nigerian justice system has never been able to accomplish this.”
The suit was filed in by FoE and four Nigerian farmers in 2008 in the Netherlands, where Shell has its headquarters. It focused on four oil spills in the period from 2004 to 2007, in the Delta villages of Goi, Oruma and Ikot Ada Udo, which locals said had polluted the farmland and fish ponds around their homes.The case was unique in that it was the first time a Dutch multinational had been taken to court in Holland over environmental damage caused abroad.
The court established that the spills were caused by sabotage, not poor maintenance on the part of Shell. Regarding the 2004 spill near Goi and the 2005 spill near Oruma, Shell Nigeria had taken “sufficient precautions” to prevent sabotage from its underground oil pipelines and was therefore not liable for damage claimed by the farmers.
But in the case of two spills near Ikot Ada Udo, it ruled that Shell’s local subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) had violated its duty of care and should be held liable for negligence.
It said the sabotage had occurred in 2006 and 2007 when criminals opened the valves of a deserted Shell oil well with a monkey wrench. Shell could have prevented the sabotage by putting a concrete plug in the well, which it did not do until 2010, the court found.
It ordered SPDC to pay unspecified damages to the Nigerian plaintiff in the case, Friday Akpan. The court dismissed FoE’s claim that SPDC did not clean up the spill sites properly.
Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of SPDC, said: “We welcome the court’s ruling that all spill cases were caused by criminal activity.”
He reiterated Shell’s view that most oil pollution in the Delta is caused by oil thieves and illegal refiners, and said SPDC had made “great efforts” to raise awareness of the issue with the government of Nigeria.
“For SPDC, no oil spill is acceptable and we are working hard to improve our performance on operational spills,” he said.