Villagers from Niger Delta take oil giant Shell to court in London over pollution
A hearing opened on Thursday at the High Court in London into allegations that the oil company Shell polluted large tracts of the Niger Delta, in Nigeria, particularly in the areas traditionally claimed by the Ogoni people.
The villagers, supported by Amnesty International Nigeria, say that decades of spills have damaged farms and waterways.
"The pollution created by the oil giant has caused immense damage to the local environment, depriving thousands of people of access to clean drinking water," said the NGO Amnesty International.
"Sabotage and its consequences are insignificant compared to the destruction caused by the company’s oil exploitation," Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, says.
"While we are trying to focus the debate on environmental damage, talking about sabotage is just a way to avoid taking responsibility," Sanusi added.
Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC claim that the spills in the region were caused by sabotage or illegal refining.
A Shell spokesperson said: "The litigation does little to address the real problem in the Niger Delta: oil spills due to theft, illegal refining and sabotage, which cause the most environmental damage."
Shell's lawyers said in papers submitted to the court that SPDC recognises it is obliged to compensate those harmed by oil spills even if SPDC is not at fault
They added that they would not offer compensation where spills had been caused by the malicious acts of third parties.
Ten years ago, residents from the Bille and Ogale communities in Nigeria claimed their livelihoods had been destroyed and homes damaged by hundreds of oil spills caused by Shell, according to Amnesty's report.
The pollution caused widespread devastation to the local environment, killing fish and plant life, leaving thousands of people without access to clean drinking water.
According to the UN, at least 7,000 oil spill incidents have occurred in the region since 1958.
In 2011, a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) also highlighted the presence of benzene—a carcinogen—at nearly 900 times the WHO's recommended levels in contaminated water in Ogoni, in the west of the country.
"Shell repeatedly delayed the case arguing it had no legal responsibility for any of the pollution. The delay has had a devastating effect on people’s lives," said Sanusi.
Godwin Bebe Okpabi, leader of the Ogale community in the Niger Delta, told Reuters news agency that he was appealing to Shell's conscience to remediate the damage.
"As we speak, people are dying in Ogale, my community," he said. "It is sad that Shell will now want to take us through this very expensive, very troublesome trial, claiming one technicality or the other."
The month-long trial will determine issues of Nigerian law and whether SPDC can be held liable for oil spills caused by third-party interference, ahead of a further trial in 2026.
The case, parts of which began nearly a decade ago, has already been to the Britain's Supreme Court, which ruled in 2021 that the case should be heard in the English courts.
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