A Dutch court has ordered Shell to pay compensation over oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, a ruling which could pave the way for more cases against the multinational oil firm.
The Court of Appeal in The Hague on Friday, January 29, 2021, ruled that the British-Dutch company, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, must issue payouts over a long-running civil case involving four Nigerian farmers seeking compensation, and a cleanup, from the company over pollution caused by leaking oil pipelines.
The amount of compensation will be established at a later date. The court did not specify how many of the four farmers would receive compensation.
“Shell Nigeria is sentenced to compensate farmers for damages,” the court said, adding that parent company Royal Dutch Shell was also liable to install equipment to prevent future damage.
Friday’s decision can be appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court.
The case was brought in 2008 by the farmers and the Friends of the Earth campaign group, who were seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the Niger Delta region, the heart of the Nigerian oil industry.
“Tears of joy here. After 13 years, we’ve won,” the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth tweeted following Friday’s ruling.
"After almost 13 years, we will hear whether Nigerians will finally receive justice or whether Shell has succeeded in completely shirking its responsibility for the pollution. " Donald Pols of Friends of the Earth Netherlands #stopshell pic.twitter.com/7uSZqB5Uog
— Friends of the Earth International (@FoEint) January 29, 2021
The spills concerned were between 2004 and 2007, but pollution from leaking oil pipelines remains a major problem in the Niger Delta.
Shell argued that saboteurs were responsible for leaks in underground oil pipes that have polluted the delta. The company also argued that it should not be held legally responsible in the Netherlands for the actions of a foreign subsidiary, meaning Shell Nigeria.
But the appeals court ruled that while sabotage was the most likely scenario in two of the villages affected, it could not be established beyond reasonable law, meaning the Nigerian subsidiary was liable.
Shell discovered and started exploiting Nigeria’s vast oil reserves in the late 1950s and has faced heavy criticism from activists and local communities over spills and for the company’s close ties to government security forces
Friends of the Earth, which has supported the Nigerian farmers in their legal battle, argues that leaking pipes are caused by poor maintenance and inadequate security and that Shell does not do enough to clean up spills.
Source: Aljazeera
