By Rebekah Kebede – Analysis
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) cash payment of $15.5 million — roughly four hours of its 2008 profits — to settle a human rights case in Nigeria may not be enough to change Big Oil’s policies in the developing world.
A better incentive may be a desire to avoid the high legal costs and the bad publicity from the 13-year case accusing Shell of abuses in the Niger Delta region.
The suit involved incidents including the 1995 hangings of author and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters by Nigeria’s then-military government.