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Nigeria: Community affected by oil spills fights Shell in court
Nigerian experts estimate the spills in the cluster of fishing communities in Rivers state to be between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels.
Shell was quick to acknowledge liability for the spills, but it disputes the amount of oil involved and the extent of the damage. The company, the biggest producer of oil in Nigeria, has said that sabotage, illegal refining and theft have slowed the clean-up process.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has also blamed lawyers for delaying the payment of compensation, saying the case should have been dealt with in Nigeria.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude producer, but much of the Niger Delta oil region remains deeply impoverished. Decades of spills have caused widespread pollution in the region.
Shell says sabotage and oil theft are the main causes, but activists allege the firm has not done enough to prevent such incidents and clean them when they occur.
In a statement ahead of Tuesday’s hearings, Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of SPDC, said: “From the outset, we’ve accepted responsibility for the two operational spills in Bodo in 2008. “They’re deeply regrettable operational accidents, and they absolutely should not have happened.
“We want to fairly compensate those who have been genuinely affected as quickly as possible and clean up all areas where oil has been spilled from our facilities, including the many parts of Bodo which have been severely impacted by oil theft, illegal refining and sabotage activities.”
