ERA/FoEN Condemn Shell's Divestment, Demand Accountability, Compensation in it's Operational Areas.

By Lucky Isibor.

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) have deplored the recent disclosure that Shell has concluded plans to sell its land based and shallow offshore oil fields and infrastructure in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. 

The foremost environmental rights Organisation said Shell  in its characteristic nature, having almost drained the region dry of oil and gas resources and engaged in destruction of the natural environment by deliberate action because of its reckless and unconscionable operations in the region, now seeks to walk away from its ecological crime scene with billions of dollars in its kitty.  

ERA/FoRN stateted this in a statement signed by it's Director of Programmes, Mike Karikpo and made available to journalists in Benin City it's head office.

According to the statement, ERA "strongly deplores the insensitivity of the transnational corporation that has over the last few years been divesting from the region, collecting huge payouts for the oil fields and infrastructure sold and leaving local communities to deal with the devastation and destruction of the ecosystem, their lives and livelihoods. 

"Shell recently sold OML 17 to HEIRS Holding in a deal worth well over half a billion dollars and absolutely nothing was set aside for the remediation and restoration of the damaged ecosystem of communities around this area." 

The statement reinterated ERA/ FoEN stand on Shell's divestment from the Niger Delta as stated by it's Executive Director, Dr. Uyi Ojo in an earlier statement that "Shell owes the environment and the people of the Niger Delta region a huge ecological debt for its reckless operations in the region over the last seven decades.Shell is running away from accountability for its ruinous actions in the Niger Delta region and amounts to eating your cake and having it”. 

While calling on CSOs and the oil bearing communities to put negotiating teams in place to go into negotiation on sales of Shell assets with a view to setting aside funds for payment of compensation and called on the federal government to protect local communities’ interest within the divestment process of oil and gas multinational companies operating in the Niger Delta region and halt Shell’s attempt to run away from its mess without proper clean up of the Niger Delta.

The statement stated further that "Shell has a history of disdain for local communities and disrespect of Nigeria’s justice system" and cited the repeated refusal of Shell to pay the N17 billion compensation awarded by a Nigerian court to the Ejama-Ebubu communities in Eleme local government area of Rivers state for oil spills that devastated their land in 2010. 

"This spill occurred during the Nigerian civil war 1967-1970 and Shell has refused to undertake proper cleanup of the spill area or pay the compensation set by the court. In November 2020 Shell lost an attempt to extricate itself from responsibility for the spill and the compensation cost awarded against it. The Nigerian supreme court rejected Shell’s bid to set aside the 2010 compensation award, with accruing interest the compensation claim now stands at a healthy N180 billion.

"ERA/FoEN therefore calls on CSOs and local communities to immediately put in place negotiating teams that will participate in any discussions and decision on the sale of Shell’s environmentally destructive assets so that they can ensure that the billions of dollars that would accrue from the sale would be utilized for the remediation, compensation and restoration of our environment.

"ERA/FoEN further calls on CSOs and communities to explore opportunities for filing cases in Nigeria and other relevant jurisdictions to demand that they be given a seat at the table during the sale processes on the basis of the ecological debt that Shell owes the environment and local communities and the need to set aside funds to remediate and restore damaged ecosystems resulting from Shell’s self-regulated operations in Nigeria over the last 70 years.

"We call on the Nigerian state to ensure that the process of sale of these assets is open, transparent and inclusive to enable communities with ongoing litigations and others with verifiable claims against Shell to participate and monitor the process.   

"This is even more relevant in this decade of Ecosystem Restoration declared by the United Nations 2021-2030. As oil fades away as the energy source of choice across the world, it is imperative that all oil impacted ecosystems across the country should be cleaned and restored as much as possible to the state they were before the commencement of oil mining activities. Anything short of this, is unacceptable," the statement said.