U.K. High Court Says Nigerians Can Sue Shell in Britain Over Oil Spills
The Dutch energy company has a presence in Britain, and a judge ruled there was “a real issue to be tried.”
: Feb. 12, 2021
LONDON — Britain’s Supreme Court said Friday that a group of about 50,000 Nigerian farmers and fishermen could bring a case in London’s High Court against Royal Dutch Shell over years of oil spills in the Niger Delta that have polluted their land, wells and waterways.
The judges said there was the potential that a parent company like Shell, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands but a large British presence, has responsibility for the activities of subsidiaries like the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, which operates in the delta region.
The court overruled a lower court that had said there was no case to be brought against Shell in Britain. On Friday, the judges said there was “a real issue to be tried.”
The ruling is “a watershed moment in the accountability of multinational companies,” said Daniel Leader, a partner in the British law firm Leigh Day, who led the legal team representing the Nigerian communities.
Mr. Leader added that the judgment would most likely increase the ability of “impoverished communities” to hold powerful companies to account. Indeed, courts in Western countries have recently indicated that they were increasingly open to hearing such cases. Last month, a court in the Netherlands ruled that Shell was liable for pollution in another case involving Nigerian farmers.
The Ogale and Bille peoples bringing the case in Britain say their lives have been blighted by years of damage from oil spills from pipelines operated by Shell. Mr. Leader said they were bringing their claims in Britain because the prospects of success in the Nigerian courts were remote, given that few lawyers would take on a case and local potentates might lay claim to money from any judgment. He said that local people lacked access to legal representation and that if they did bring a case, it would most likely take decades to reach a conclusion.
“By that time, everyone is dead,” Mr. Leader said.
Shell routinely blames the damage on sabotage and criminal activity. According to Shell, Nigerian law requires it to pay compensation for spills caused by operational issues but not for damage resulting from sabotage.
“The spills at issue happened in communities that are heavily impacted by oil theft, illegal oil refining and the sabotage of pipelines,” a company spokeswoman said in an email on Friday.
Mr. Leader said a case was now likely to be brought against Shell in Britain, though he suggested that there might be more room for legal maneuvers by the oil company on issues of jurisdiction. Unless Shell settles, the case is likely to take another two or three years, he said. He declined to give an estimate of the damages that the Nigerian plaintiffs might seek, saying the main issue is to force Shell to clean up the spills, something he said Shell had failed to do.
“These communities are chronically polluted; it impacts every aspect of their daily life,” he said.
Shell said the company’s subsidiary in Nigeria cleaned up the mess “regardless of the cause.”
The company is also gradually selling off its properties in the delta, preferring to drill offshore, away from where people live.
Stanley Reed has been writing from London for The Times since 2012 on energy, the environment and the Middle East. Prior to that he was London bureau chief for BusinessWeek magazine. @stanleyreed12 • Facebook
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.
