Shell To Pay €15m To Ogoni Farmers Over Pollution

 

Shell announced on Friday that it has decided to pay 15 million Euros to farmers in Ogoni communities in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta as compensation for damages in a pipe leaks case that was filed over 13 years ago.

A Dutch appeals court ruled last year, following 13 years of legal battles, that Shell’s Nigerian branch must pay out for a series of leaks and that the parent company must install new pipeline equipment to prevent further devastating spills.

“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 15 million for the benefit of the communities and the individual claimants,” it said in a statement. The deal also confirms the installation of a leak detection system on 20 pipeline segments in accordance with the Dutch court ruling and that remediation work has been completed.

Despite acknowledging that the settlement follows up on the Dutch court ruling, the oil firm said the agreement “is on a no admission of liability basis, and settles all claims and ends all pending litigation related to the spills”. Four Nigerian farmers and fishermen sued Shell in the Netherlands to pay for cleaning up spills from its pipelines in the Niger Delta. They were aided by Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth. Shell has always attributed pollution to sabotage and said it had cleaned up affected areas.

The legal battle has lasted so long that the original farmers have now all died, but their survivors and the affected communities pushed on.

“It is a great relief to all of us that after the years of legal battle with Shell, we will soon be recipients of this money as compensation for all we have lost,” said Eric Dooh, one of the current plaintiffs.