Settling a court case in Amsterdam, Shell has agreed to pay EUR 15m to local communities on the Niger Delta affected by oil spillages into the environment from several pipeline leaks, the British oil company informs in a joint statement with green group Friends of the Earth’s unit in the Netherlands. 

”Under the settlement, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), as operator of the SPDC joint venture, will pay an amount of EUR 15m for the benefit of the communities and the individual claimants,” the statement reads.

The settlement also entails installation of a system to detect oil leaks at early stages.

Four Nigerian fishers took part in the lawsuit against Shell in the Netherlands, demanding that the oil company pay to clean up the polluter’s waterways.

The case has been ongoing for more than a decade because, among other factors, the fishers and farmers that initially filed the suit have since died, while their families have continued litigation.

Fuel theft carried out by local persons and groups has reportedly been a main factor leading to oil pollution, and spilt crude has fouled the nation’s coastline and swamp areas of the delta, where local residents have been afflicted by health problems tied to perpetually burning gas destroying human respiratory systems.

Shell has throughout the case maintained that the leaks were caused by sabotage.

For many years, the oil industry has been seen as curse for Nigeria as Africa’s largest oil country for several decades. Rather than delivering on the promise of serving as the basis for developing state welfare in the continent’s most populous nation, the oil business has instead resulted in death and environmental devastation.

”The victory of the Niger Delta farmers is a testament that big polluters may run but will find nowhere on Earth to hide because they will be sought out,” comments Nigerian environmental activist and poet Nnimmo Bassey, also a member of the Board of Environmental Rights Development Foundation:

”We celebrate the farmers still alive to savor this victory and believe the spirit of the deceased four Niger Delta farmers and others will now rest, but corporate polluters will never rest until their operations and attitudes in respect for their hosts, protection of their environment, livelihoods and humanity is guaranteed.”

On prior occasion, the United Nations Environment Programme has stated the redressing the polluted Niger Delta would require, to paraphrase, the world’s most extensive and protracted oil clean-up.

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