Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Nigeria, has agreed to pay €15 million to three communities over oil spills. This is according to a statement published on its website on Friday, as obtained by Nairametrics. The compensation followed a court case filed against the oil company at the Court of Appeal of The Hague. At the end of the trial, the company was found guilty and was ordered to pay for damages to farmers. The settlement: In the statement seen by Nairametrics, Shell Nigeria explained that it reached a settlement deal with the affected communities. Part of the statement said:
“Following the judgments of the Court of Appeal of The Hague on 29 January 2021, Shell and Milieudefensie have negotiated a settlement for the benefit of the communities of Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo in Nigeria, impacted by four oil spills that occurred between 2004 and 2007. “The settlement is on a no admission of liability basis, and settles all claims and ends all pending litigation related to the 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.”
Other settlement terms: Shell also noted that an independent expert has confirmed that SPDC, as operator of the SPDC joint venture, had installed a leak detection system on the 20” lines that form the Kolo-Creek-Rumuekpe trunkline (KCTL) Pipeline in compliance with the judgment of the Court of Appeal of The Hague, the Netherlands. The parties agree that remediation has been completed and certified by relevant regulatory agencies in Nigeria in accordance with Nigerian law. The parties agree this also follows from the judgments of the Court of Appeal.
The affected communities: Goi community is located in Rivers state, Oruma community is located in Bayelsa state, and Ikot Ada Udo is located in Akwa Ibom state. In case you missed it: The case was brought in 2008 by four farmers and the environmental group Friends of the Earth, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the region, the heart of Nigeria’s oil industry. After the appeals court’s final ruling last year, Shell said it continued to believe the spills were caused by sabotage. However, the court said Shell had not proven “beyond reasonable doubt” that sabotage had caused the spill, rather than poor maintenance.
