Extract from a Motley Fool article by Royston Wild published Friday 18 July 2014 under the headline: The Risks Of Investing In Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Like its industry rival BP, Shell also faces the prospect of being dragged through the courts — and having to incur huge legal penalties — as a result of a major oil catastrophe.
Some 11,000 villagers from the Nigerian village of Bodo are taking action against the business after thefts from the Bomu-Bonny pipeline caused two large oil spills in 2008. Shell had initially offered to compensate claimants to the tune of £30m back in 2011, an offer which it repeated after an initial hearing at the UK High Court in June.