Shell partly responsible for spills
2013-01-30 19:50
The Hague - A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that Royal
Dutch Shell can be held partially responsible for pollution in the Niger Delta
in southern Nigeria, saying the company should have prevented sabotage at one
of its facilities.
The district court in The Hague ordered Shell to pay
unspecified damages to one farmer, but dismissed four other claims filed
against the Dutch parent company.
The case was seen by activists as a test for holding
multinational companies responsible for alleged offences at foreign
subsidiaries.
Four Nigerians and interest group Friends of the Earth
filed the suit in 2008 in the Netherlands, where Shell has its global
headquarters, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and
waterways in the Niger Delta region.
The court backed Shell's argument that the spills were
caused by sabotage and not poor maintenance of its facilities, as had been
argued by the Nigerians.
"Shell Nigeria should and could have prevented this
sabotage in an easy way," the ruling said.
"This is why the district court has sentenced Shell
Nigeria to pay damages to the Nigerian plaintiff."
The Nigerians, fishermen and farmers, said they could no
longer feed their families because the region had been polluted by oil from
Shell's pipelines and production facilities.
The pollution is a result of oil spills in 2004, 2005 and
2007, they said.
It is the first time a Dutch-registered company has been
sued in a domestic court for offences allegedly carried out by a foreign
subsidiary.
The suit targets Shell's parent company in the
Netherlands and its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development (SPDC).
It’s the largest oil and gas company in Nigeria, Africa's
top energy producer, with an output of more than 1 million barrels of oil or
equivalent per day.
In October, Shell lawyers said the company has played its
part in cleaning up the Delta, which accounts for more than 50% of Nigeria's
oil exports.
The Niger Delta has about 31 million inhabitants and
includes the Ogoniland region.
It is the main source of food for the impoverished, rural
population.
