Oil Spill: Shell Wins Against Niger-Delta in UK
By Boniface Ihiasota, USA
The United Kingdom Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Shell, the leading British multinational oil and gas company, on Wednesday, stating that it was too late for Nigerian claimants to sue its two subsidiaries over a 2011 offshore oil spill.
In December 2011, allegations were made that an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil leaked when a tanker was loaded at Shell’s Bonga oilfield, 120km off the coast of Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
However, Shell disputed the allegations, claiming that the Bonga spill was dispersed offshore and did not have any adverse effects on the shoreline.
The case was one of several legal battles that Shell has been fighting against Nigerians who live in the oil-rich Niger Delta, a region facing pollution, conflict, and corruption associated with the oil and gas industry.
A group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities made several attempts to take Shell to court, alleging that the resulting oil slick polluted their lands and waterways, destroying farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests, and religious shrines.
However, a panel of five Supreme Court justices unanimously upheld the rulings by two lower courts that found that the claimants had brought their case after the expiry of a six-year legal deadline for taking action.
The claimants’ lawyers had argued that the ongoing consequences of the pollution represented a “continuing nuisance,” a type of civil tort, which would have meant the deadline did not apply.
But the justices rejected their submission, stating that “there was no continuing nuisance in this case,” according to Justice Andrew Burrows.
Although only two Nigerians were appellants in the Supreme Court case, the verdict would be applicable to the thousands of other claimants, according to Reuters.
Shell said the Supreme Court ruling had brought to an end all legal claims in English courts related to the spill. “While the 2011 Bonga spill was highly regrettable, it was swiftly contained and cleaned up offshore,” a Shell spokesperson said.
