Shell is paying $111M for oil spill in Nigeria that happened 50 years ago

Shell or the Royal Dutch Shell plc, a British-Dutch oil, and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, is set to pay $111 million or around £80 million for the oil spill that happened 50 years ago, in the 1970s.

The company’s Nigerian unit will be paying the local community to solve the long-running conflict over the incident. According to BBC News, the group’s lawyer, Lucius Nwosa, said that the oil giant will compensate the Ejama-Ebubu people with the said amount to officially end the legal dispute that began in 1991.

He added that on Wednesday, Aug. 11, Shell approached the Nigerian court to inform it about the latest development regarding the case. It was said that the compensation will mark the full and final settlement to the Ejama-Ebubu community for the oil spill during the Biafran War in 1967-70.

"They ran out of tricks and decided to come to terms," Nwosa said. "The decision is a vindication of the resoluteness of the community for justice."

Prior to Shell’s agreement to pay, the Nigerian court imposed a fine on the company in 2010 amounting to $41.36 million. However, this was not settled at that time, and it instead filed numerous appeals that were all unsuccessful.

Shell continued to say that the damage was caused by third parties and not them. In an attempt to clear the case, Shell also started international arbitration at the start of this year and said that it was not given a chance to defend itself against the allegations.

In any case, the dispute has been ongoing for decades because the pollution from the oil spill due to leaking oil pipelines continues to be a big problem in Nigeria, in the Niger Delta, to be more specific.

Meanwhile, DW reported that the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) stated that they see the offer of compensation from Royal Dutch Shell as confirmation of the issues that the movement raised about the oil firm’s environmental devastation of Ogoni. Nnimmo Bassey, an Ogoni environmental activist, lauded the community that was affected by the oil spill as they did not give up the fight, and now they have claimed justice.

"The extent of pollution in the Niger Delta is massive and having to wait for 30 years before the case is ended has tried the patience of the people,” he said. “We really have to applaud the people for this."