Oil spill: two communities in the Niger Delta are suing Shell

More than 13,000 residents of the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta have filed claims against Shell over devastating oil spills, according to a press release from Leigh Day Company, a British law firm dealing with human rights abuses.

According to the statement, the group register at the UK Supreme Court has been completed by affected communities, including schools and churches from the raw-wealthy communities of the Niger Delta.

They are filing claims against the oil giant for large-scale pollution and destruction of their source of economic survival as a result of Shell’s activities.

The Bille and Ogale communities, according to the statement, “have been engaged in a legal battle with the company since 2015 and in 2021 the UK Supreme Court ruled that there was a highly arguable case that Shell plc, its UK parent company, was liable for systemic pollution caused by its Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC”.

The statement further revealed that “severe oil spills in the communities are ongoing and no clean-up has been done”. Instead, “there have been 55 new oil spills in the Ogale community since September 2011”.

The claims detail the nature of the damage suffered by residents of the Ogale and Bille communities.

“In 2011, after a three-year detailed investigation, the Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland from the United Nations Environment Program reported how the Ogoni people were exposed to severe oil pollution on a daily basis, impacting their water resources, air quality and farmland. UNEP recommended urgent action to secure the largest terrestrial cleanup in history, noting that there was “an imminent danger to public health”. Shockingly, 12 years later, communities are still polluted, uncleaned and residents are still drinking from poisoned wells.”

“In Ogale, the emergency water system for clean water has not functioned for the past five years. The majority of residents do not have access to clean water as the groundwater and aquifer under the Ogale community are severely polluted.”

It could also be inferred from the statement that the people of the riverine communities are asking Shell for compensation for their loss because their ability to farm and fish has become useless.

“In Bille, the community’s drinking water is also polluted and the oil has killed most of the fish and shellfish in the rivers, leaving Bille’s fishing population without food or income. This has led to a fundamental shift in the Bille community’s way of life; people who used to have a strong focus on fishing can no longer fish.”

“With the class register filed with the court, the next stage in the case is for a case management hearing to take place in the spring of 2023, ahead of the full trial likely to take place the following year,” the statement further revealed.

In its defense to the claims, Shell argues, among other things, that it is not legally responsible for the pollution in the communities, arguing that the communities have no legal authority to enforce the clean-up against Shell.

Shell also says that many of the specific spills in Ogale and Bille occurred more than five years before the claims were made, and that despite the lack of clean-up, communities should not seek compensation for those spills, and “that Shell cannot be held responsible for any spills caused by ‘bunkering’, regardless of whether it could have foreseen the bunkering and not taken measures to prevent it”.

It bases its argument that the parent company cannot be held liable for any pollution arising from SPDC’s activities in connection with a Supreme Court ruling in the Okpabi v. Shell case.

This has led to concerns that if such a legal argument becomes successful, it will have far-reaching consequences, with the result that oil-affected communities in Nigeria will be unable to clean up their environment and demand compensation for the loss of maintenance, unless they are able to prove that the damage was caused by a business failure within five years of the date of filing the claim.

“For most Nigerian communities living with old pollution, that would essentially deprive them of any legal remedy against oil companies.”

Leigh Day further disclosed what is at stake, stating: “Shell announced in 2021 that it intends to exit the Niger Delta and sell its onshore oil fields and assets after 80 years of highly profitable operations. However, Shell has not explained whether it intends to do anything about the widespread and systematic pollution of Nigerian communities caused by its activities over many years.”

Daniel Leader, a partner at the law firm Leigh Day, said the case raises striking questions about oil company liabilities.

“This case raises important questions about the responsibilities of oil and gas companies. It appears that Shell is seeking to release the Niger Delta from any legal obligation to address the environmental devastation caused by oil spills from its infrastructure over many decades. At a time when the world is focused on “the just transition,” this raises profound questions about the responsibility of fossil fuel companies for legacy and ongoing environmental pollution.”

Another partner at the law firm, Matthew Renshaw, stated that instead of engaging with the communities, “Shell has been fighting them tirelessly through the courts for the past seven years”.

“At a time when Shell is making unprecedented profits, it is high time it addressed the ongoing pollution caused to these communities by its activities. The question must be asked whether Shell simply intends to leave the Niger Delta without doing anything about the environmental catastrophe that has unfolded under its watch?”