By ROB DAVIES FOR THE DAILY MAIL: 19 December 2015
Royal Dutch Shell is braced for a flood of compensation claims against its Nigerian business over oil spills, after a ruling that makes it more vulnerable to lawsuits.
Judges in The Hague, Netherlands, ordered Shell to hand over documents that could shed light on the cause of spills, which the firm blamed on sabotage by oil thieves.
The ruling is a blow for Shell, which had argued that cases against its Nigerian joint venture SPDC should be heard in Nigeria where the plaintiffs are based, and where companies cannot be held responsible for spills caused by sabotage.
In 2013, a judge ruled that while SPDC could be held liable for spills in Nigeria, parent company Royal Dutch Shell could not.
The fresh ruling does not overrule that decision, to be heard on appeal next year.
But it does give the court in The Hague jurisdiction over actions taken by SPDC, potentially clearing the way for claims against the Nigerian business to be heard in the Netherlands.
This allows Nigerian farmers to take legal action that could result in large compensation payouts.
‘There are 6,000km of Shell pipelines and thousands of people living along them in the Niger Delta,’ said Friends of the Earth Netherlands director Geert Ritsema. ‘Other people can bring cases – that could be tens of billions of euros in damages.’
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
