Ogoni Farmers And Delta Communities Jubilates As Shell Agrees To Pay €15m to Them Over Pollution.
The Nigerian
subsidiary of global oil giant Shell Plc, which is known as Shell Petroleum
Development Company (SPDC) had agreed to pay €15 million to communities in the Niger Delta region as
compensation for oil pipeline leaks.
In 2008, four Ogoni farmers and fishermen
sued shell in the Netherlands to pay for the cleaning up of spills in their
villages namely Goi, Oruma, and Ikot Ada Udo. Between 2004 and 2007, these
communities were affected by four oil spills from shell.
The plaintiffs were aided by
Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of Friends of the Earth.
After 13 years of legal battle, a Dutch appeals
court delivered its judgment in 2021. The court ruled that shell must pay for
the series of leaks and that the parent company must install new pipeline
equipment to prevent future devastating spills.
On Friday, December
23rd, the oil giants released a statement stating that they have
reached a deal with Dutch environmental group Milieudefensie that has helped
the affected communities.
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The statement read;
“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.
“An independent expert has confirmed that SPDC, as operator of the
SPDC joint venture, has installed a leak detection system on the 20 lines that
form the KCTL pipeline in compliance with the judgment of the court of appeal
of The Hague, the Netherlands.”
The statement added that the different parties agreed
that remediation has been completed and certified by relevant regulations following
Nigerian law.
It added;
“The parties agree this also follows from the judgments of the
court of appeal.”
Milieudefensie’s director Donald Pols said the
settlement will allow the plaintiffs and their communities to finally get on
with their lives. But he said it also has a wider significance.
Pols said;
“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.
“Now they can be called to account.”
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