A Nigerian court ordered Royal Dutch Shell Today to pay southern communities US$1.5 billion in compensation for environmental pollution and degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the federal high court in the oil industry center, Port Harcourt, ruled that Shell, in its capacity as the operator of a joint venture that includes the Nigerian government, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI, was obliged to pay the sum first ordered by the country’s parliament in August 2004, a court registrar said. The registrar spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the case.
Stuart Bruseth, Shell spokesman in London, confirmed the ruling and said he believed the company has “strong grounds to appeal.” Shell had gone to court to challenge the lawmakers’ decision made in response to a petition by ethnic Ijaws. The joint venture Shell operates produces a little under half of Nigeria’s 2.5 million barrels daily of oil exports.
The oil wealth has long been a source of tension in southern Nigeria, where communities say they see too little benefit and bear too much burden. In the latest unrest over the past week, militants have abducted foreign oil workers, blown up pipelines and sabotaged a Shell oil loading platform, forcing the company to shut off the flow of several hundred thousand barrels of oil.