Shell has said that it would pay €15million to Nigerian farmers to compensate them for damage from pipeline leaks.
A Dutch appeals court had ruled, last year, following 13 years of legal battles, that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) must pay out the €15million for a series of leaks, and that the parent company must install new pipeline equipment to prevent further devastating spills.
Shell, last Friday, said it had reached a deal with the Dutch environmental group, Milieudefensie, that has helped the affected communities.
“Under the settlement The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) as operator of the SPDC joint venture, will pay an amount of €15million for the benefit of the communities and the individual claimants,” it said in a statement.
The deal also confirms the installation of a leak detection system on 20 pipeline segments in accordance with the Dutch court ruling, and that remediation work has been completed.
Despite acknowledging that the settlement follows the Dutch court ruling, the oil firm said the agreement “is on a no admission of liability basis, and settles all claims and ends all pending litigation related to the spills.”
Four Nigerian farmers and fishermen had sued Shell in the Netherlands to pay for cleaning up spills from its pipelines in the Niger Delta, a major oil-producing region.
The four farmers are from Bayelsa, AkwaIbom and Rivers states.
They were aided by Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth.
Shell has always attributed pollution to sabotage, and claimed to have cleaned up affected areas.
The legal battle lasted so long that the original farmers have now all died, but their survivors and the affected communities pushed on.
“It is a great relief to all of us that after the years of legal battle with Shell, we will soon be recipients of this money as compensation for all we have lost,” one of the current plaintiffs, Eric Dooh, said.
Milieudefensie’s Director, Donald Pols, said the settlement would allow the plaintiffs and their communities to finally get on with their lives.
But he said it also has a wider significance.
“If we look at the court case as a whole, the major gain is that a new standard has been set: companies will no longer be able to get away with pollution and with ignoring human rights,” he said.
“Now, they can be called to account.”