Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s leading oil companies, has long been under fire for its controversial practices in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Recently, their actions made headlines again as a settlement was finally reached with the Bodo community after years of litigation. Here’s a look back at the decades-long controversy surrounding Shell and its oil drilling operations in Nigeria: 12 things you didn’t know about Shell Oil controversy in Niger Delta.
Sources: Ventures-Africa.com, CCRJustice.org, TheGuardian.com, NigerianMuse.com, HumanRightsWatch.org
The Nigerian government has always worked closely with oil companies to allow drilling throughout the country, and began working with Shell in 1958 to permit oil exploration in the Niger Delta region, just one year after the discovery of Nigeria’s first commercial petroleum deposit. Shell and Chevron Corp. would become the leading operators in the area for the next several decades.
At Shell’s request, and with financial assistance from the company, the Nigerian government deployed soldiers to the region to help quell growing protests against the oil drilling. Protests began when the Ogoni people were forced off their land without consultation or proper compensation for oil exploration, and saw their region’s natural wealth looted. Soldiers used deadly force against the Ogoni people and conducted mass raids in communities. Disturbances of oil production were considered acts of treason by the gtovernment. The controversy came to a head in November 1995 when nine Ogoni leaders – known as the Ogoni Nine – were executed by the Nigerian government on false murder charges. Internationally, it was recognized as an attempt by the Nigerian-Shell partnership to suppress local opposition.
Beginning in 1996, Shell was charged with a litany of cases on human rights violations, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest, and illegal detention. As a part of a 2009 settlement, Shell paid $15.5 million to the families of the Ogoni Nine. Despite the payment, the company continued to deny any involvement in or responsibility for the deaths of the Ogoni leaders, claiming instead that the money was to cover the families’ legal costs and for reconciliation efforts — nothing more.
The Niger Delta region represented “one of the world’s most severely petroleum-impacted ecosystems,” according to the Niger Delta Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Project, an independent organization made up of Nigerian, American, and British scientists. An estimated 75 percent of people living in the region depend on fishing and farming for their livelihoods, which were deeply impacted by Shell’s activities.
Source: CCRJustice.org
Natural gas produced as a natural byproduct of oil drilling is often converted for energy use or reinserted into the oil well. In Nigeria, however, Shell burned it in a process called gas flaring, released harmful toxic compounds into the air. The chemicals ended up in local waterways and fields, and have been linked to birth defects, convulsions, and irreparable chromosomal damage. Gas flaring in Nigeria has been named a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
In 1969, Nigeria started ordering companies to use the natural gas byproduct instead of flaring it. This was ignored by the vast majority of companies drilling in the country. The government then passed the Associated Gas Reinjection Act in 1979 that imposed fines for noncompliance. Shell, however, chose to continue flaring and pay the fines rather than clean up its operations, a move that would end up being more expensive.
Official figures show several hundred oil spells every year in the Niger delta region, the majority of which show Shell at fault. Shell frequently denied these claims, but international observers point to a severe lack of transparency when it comes to oversight of Shell’s activities. In 2008, footage and subsequent reports from a leak in Bodo, a community in the Niger Delta region, showed the actual spillage amount was more than 125 times the 4,000 barrels Shell originally reported.
The Bodo community has been the most impacted by Shell’s activities, though the company no longer actively explores there. The community’s land, located in River State, once accounted for more than 60 percent of Shell’s crude oil output. In 1993, however, Shell ceased oil exploration activities in Ogoniland due to rising violence. However, it maintained the oil pipelines that traverse Bodo land. These have allegedly been improperly maintained. Rusting and corroded pipes have led to large oil spills.
The Bodo community took Shell to court in the U.K. for the 2008 oil spills, in which the Bodo claimed thousands of barrels of oil were spilled on their land, severely impacting the ecosystem. The $83.4-million agreement, reached in January 2015, is the highest oil spill-related compensation in Nigerian history. Shell has issued other compensations for its activities in the Niger Delta region in the past, but none came close to this one.
Due to the enormously detrimental effect shell’s drilling activities and spills, have had on the Bodo community’s land, the initial demand in the lawsuit was for $454.9 million USD. According to reports, members of the community lost more than $450 a year average in income due to the spills – amounting to approximately $2,729.40 in lost profit per person all told. By contrast, Shell originally offered $45 million in a mediated settlement.
About 15,600 Bodo ipeople will split $53.1 million of the settlement money for their personal losses from the spills. The remaining $30.3 million will be placed in a community trust to be used for health clinics and schools. This lawsuit is groundbreaking in that it represents the first time individuals have been personally compensated for an oil company’s operations in Nigeria.
Despite the lengthy list of environmental violations, Shell continues to portray itself as a company dedicated to safe environmental practices. The company ran a 2007 ad that featured an oil refinery emitting flowers amid the claim that carbon dioxide waste was used to grow flowers and other green plants — a claim that was allegedly untrue). Shell was forced to pull the ad, and has come under fire for other attempts to “greenwash” its activities since.