Shell Understated Nigerian Oil Spill Damage By More Than 60 Times: Report

Royal Dutch Shell plc may be liable for more than $150 million in compensation to victims of a 2008 Nigerian oil spill, said a report by The Guardian on Monday, after a Amnesty International-commissioned study discovered that the damage caused had been more than 60 times what the energy company had originally claimed.

Royal Dutch Shell plc may be liable for more than $150 million in compensation to victims of a 2008 Nigerian oil spill, said a report by The Guardian on Monday, after a Amnesty International-commissioned study discovered that the damage caused had been more than 60 times what the energy company had originally claimed.

[quote]”The difference is staggering: even using the lower end of the Accufacts estimate, the volume of oil spilt at Bodo was more than 60 times the volume Shell has repeatedly claimed leaked,” said Audrey Gaughran, director of global issues at Amnesty International, in a statement cited by Reuters.[/quote]

The second largest energy company in the world had previously estimated that just 1,640 barrels of oil had been split in the Niger delta along the Nigerian coast of Bodo in 2008; but a study from Washington State-based research company Accufacts now place the figure closer to the “103,000 barrels and 311,000 barrels” range. Nearly 11,000 victims from Bodo communities are suing the energy company for damages, with a high court case to be heard in London later this year.

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Related: Oil Spills

Bodo inhabitants say that their lives have been devastated by the oil spill, which has destroyed their fishing grounds, polluted freshwater sources and caused long-term health problems.

And while Shell has accepted responsibility for the spill, a company spokeswoman insisted that that the findings of their previous study had been accurate, and that the community in Bodo was now preventing the company from repairing the pipeline.

[quote]”We accept the need for due process to be followed. However, … cynical games played by lawyers in both countries … have prevented the swift payment of compensation in this case, and delayed clean-up operations.”[/quote]

“All oil spill incidents are investigated jointly by communities, regulators, operators and security agencies. The team visits the site of the incident, determines the cause and volume of spilled oil and impact on the environment, and signs off the findings in a report. This is an independent process – communities and regulators are all involved. This is the process that was employed with the two spills in question, and we stand by the findings [of 1,640 barrels],” she said.

In a letter to Amnesty International, Shell also wrote: “The court will decide what the volume of the spill was. We suggest you might be better to wait for the authoritative view on the volume of the spill and publish at that stage rather than risk misleading the public with Accufacts estimate.”

But the human rights non-governmental organisation appeared to be undeterred.

“Even if we use the start date given by Shell, the volume of oil spilt is far greater than Shell recorded,” said Gaughran.

“More than three years after the Bodo oil spill, Shell has yet to conduct a proper cleanup or to pay any official compensation to the affected communities. After years of trying to seek justice in Nigeria, the people of Bodo have now taken their claim to the UK courts.”

“The evidence of Shell’s bad practice in the Niger delta is mounting,” added Patrick Naagbanton, co-ordinator of the local oil watch group Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD).

[quote]”Shell seems more interested in conducting a PR operation than a cleanup operation. The problem is not going away; and sadly neither is the misery for the people of Bodo.”[/quote]