Pipeline spills affected fishing ponds and land in two villages, Oruma and Goi, and residents are still affected by the spills 15 years later, according to environmental groups.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and Shell, through its Nigerian subsidiary, started exporting fields in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s. It manages around 50 oil fields, five gas plants and more than 3,000 miles of pipelines, according to the company.
However, its activities have also been damaging in terms of reputation, and Shell and other oil companies, such as Italy’s Eni, have long been pursued on charges of pollution in the region. In 1994, Bopp Van Dessel, head of environmental studies at Shell Nigeria, resigned, arguing that he felt unable to defend the company’s environmental history “without losing his personal integrity”.
“Any Shell website I saw was polluted,” Van Dessel said later on British television. “It was clear to me that Shell was devastating the area.”
In 2008, a cable from the United States released by WikiLeaks revealed that three-quarters of the pipelines in Nigeria were delayed by more than a decade for replacement, some with a life expectancy of 15 years still in operation after 30.
Shell and Eni argued that most of the leaks were caused by sabotage. However, according to Nigerian law, oil companies are responsible for ensuring effective safety standards and practices.
“Sabotage, theft of crude oil and illegal refining are a major challenge in the Niger Delta,” said Bamidele Odugbesan, spokesman for Shell’s Nigeria subsidiary, in an e-mailed statement. “Regardless of the cause, we clean and fix it, as we did with spills in this case.”