Reuters: Shell gets Nigerian deadline for $1.5 bln damages
20 May 2006 15:46:43 GMT
Source: Reuters
LAGOS, May 20 (Reuters) – A Nigerian court has given Royal Dutch Shell a Monday deadline to pay $1.5 billion in damages for pollution in the oil-producing state of Bayelsa, the energy giant said on Saturday.
Shell said it had appealed against the order by Justice Okechukwu Okeke, who in February upheld a resolution by parliament that the firm should pay the money to ethnic Ijaw communities in Bayelsa in the Niger Delta, which produces all of Nigeria's output of 2.4 million barrels of oil per day.
“The court ordered that we pay the money into an escrow account by Monday, while the case continues. We have filed an appeal against the judgment,” said a spokesman for Shell, Nigeria's biggest producer.
The order on Friday by the Federal High Court in the oil city of Port Harcourt was the latest instalment in a long-running case. The appeal will lead to further lengthy procedures before the case is determined for good.