Nigeria oil: Shell ignored warnings of spill clean-up ‘rip-off’, whistle-blower tells PJDM

A PJDM investigation has uncovered allegations that power big Shell has ignored repeated warnings {that a} controversial clean-up operation of oil-polluted areas of southern Nigeria has been beset by issues and corruption.

The multinational headquartered in London, together with the Nigerian authorities, has repeatedly acknowledged that work to wash up oil-contaminated websites of Ogoniland, which kicked off round eight years in the past, goes effectively.

However the PJDM has found proof that they have been warned repeatedly over a number of years that the scheme, arrange by the federal government and funded by numerous oil corporations to the tune of $1bn (£805m), has been affected by a string of points.

One shut observer has described the clean-up mission as a “con” and a “rip-off” that has wasted cash and left the folks of Ogonliland within the Niger Delta area persevering with to stay with the devastating influence of oil air pollution – 13 years after a ground-breaking UN report lifted the lid on the seriousness of their scenario.

Shell informed the PJDM: “The working atmosphere within the Niger Delta stays difficult due to the large scale of unlawful actions equivalent to oil theft.

“When spills do occur from our amenities we clear up and remediate, whatever the trigger. If it is an operational spill, we additionally compensate folks and communities.”

The allegations come as a civil trial is predicted to start on Thursday on the Excessive Court docket in London, the place legal professionals representing two Ogoniland communities of round 50,000 inhabitants will say Shell should take accountability for oil air pollution that occurred between 1989 and 2020, allegedly from its infrastructure.

The communities say the spills have left them with out clear water, unable to farm and fish, and created severe dangers to public well being.

Shell, which has been pushing to promote its property within the West African nation to concentrate on offshore drilling and onshore gasoline, has indicated it can defend the claims.

It denies wrongdoing and says spills within the area have been brought on by sabotage, theft and unlawful refining for which the corporate says it isn’t liable.

The PJDM has visited the affected areas within the Niger Delta, the place Shell, the biggest non-public oil and gasoline firm within the nation, found the existence of crude oil 68 years in the past.

The UN says at the least 13 million barrels – or 1.5 million tonnes – of crude oil have been spilled since 1958 in at the least 7,000 incidents within the Niger Delta area.

The spills have left many households nervous for his or her well being and livelihoods.

Grace Audi, 37, lives together with her associate and two-year-old in Ogale, the place there have been at the least 40 oil spills from Shell’s infrastructure, in line with Leigh Day, the UK-law agency representing the communities on this case.

Her household and neighbours solely have entry to a contaminated borehole, forcing them to purchase clear water to make use of for consuming, cooking, washing and, as soon as a day, flushing, at a price of 4,500 Nigerian naira ($3, £2.40) – in an space the place the common day by day wage is lower than $8.

It’s a acquainted story to many in Ogoniland.

Paulina Agbekpekpe informed the PJDM that lush greenery as soon as surrounded thriving mangroves of her group in Bodo – which isn’t a type of going to court docket on Thursday. She mentioned the rivers and ponds used to brim with all types of animals and fish, significantly periwinkle.

“The place was greener, not solely mangroves, however all by the shoreline – there have been pawpaw bushes, palm bushes and extra. However through the spills, the destruction has polluted in every single place,” the 50-year-old mom of six mentioned.

Her household had for generations survived on fishing, till a devastating spill 10 years in the past.

“Many of the youngsters – from the consuming water – have gotten ailments. Many have died. I’ve misplaced eight youngsters. My husband is sick.

“As a result of our livelihoods have been taken away, folks in Bodo are hungry and struggling.”

In 2011, the UN’s Surroundings Programme (UNEP) revealed a serious examine into the influence of air pollution on the oil-rich space.

It discovered members of 1 group in Ogoniland have been consuming water contaminated with a recognized carcinogen at ranges greater than 900 occasions above the World Well being Group (WHO) guideline. The identical chemical, benzene, was detected in all their air samples.

It additionally discovered that websites that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Improvement Firm of Nigeria (SPDC), claimed to have remediated, have been nonetheless polluted and the methods they used didn’t attain regulatory necessities.

The report concluded {that a} complete clean-up of the realm would take 25-30 years – and it led to the formation of the Hydrocarbon Air pollution Remediation Mission (Hyprep).

This was initially established by the Nigerian authorities in 2012, however no clean-up was began – till it was relaunched by a brand new authorities in December 2016.

Hyprep was part-funded by oil corporations together with the state-owned Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $350m.

Nonetheless, the PJDM has seen inner paperwork that counsel representatives of Shell and of the Nigerian authorities have been warned quite a few occasions of the company’s alleged fraudulent practices.

One particular person conscious of the mission spoke to the PJDM about their issues – and requested to stay nameless out of a concern of reprisals.

“It is common information that actually what we’re doing is a rip-off. Most of it’s to idiot the Ogoni folks,” the whistle-blower mentioned.

“It is a con perpetuated in order that more cash may be put into the pot and find yourself within the pockets of politicians and different folks in energy.”

The allegations about failings at Hyprep embody:

• Contracts being awarded to corporations that had no related expertise
• Laboratory outcomes being falsified – generally labelling contaminated soil and water as clear
• Mission prices being inflated
• Exterior auditors occasionally being blocked from checking the clean-up on websites had been completed correctly.

Within the minutes of 1 assembly in 2023, attended by representatives from Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the UNEP and Hyprep, it was identified that “incompetent” contractors have been “being engaged once more” and that they need to “not be allowed to additional degrade the atmosphere”.

In a separate leaked report seen by the PJDM from the identical yr, it was identified that laboratory outcomes have been “usually reported with deviations”.

In 2022, the UN wrote to the Nigeria’s atmosphere ministry, warning that if nothing modified, the “extraordinarily poor requirements” of the clean-up would proceed.

The PJDM has requested Hyprep and the Nigerian authorities to touch upon the allegations however has acquired no response.

However our investigation has revealed proof that Shell was conscious of the issues.

In a gathering with the British excessive commissioner to Nigeria in January final yr, minutes of which have been obtained below the Freedom of Info Act, Shell representatives acknowledged the “institutional challenges” of the clean-up company and the prospect of the refusal of “future funding” in the direction of it.

Shell informed the PJDM: “Hyprep is an company established and overseen by the federal authorities of Nigeria, with its governing council largely made up of senior ministers and authorities officers, together with 5 representatives of communities and NGOs and a single Shell consultant.”

This isn’t the one remediation mission in Ogoniland that’s alleged to have been botched.

In 2015, Shell agreed to a £55m settlement for a clean-up after two catastrophic spills in 2008 from its infrastructure within the space Bodo.

The corporate mentioned the clean-up, carried out by the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI), which is supposed to function a mediator between oil corporations, together with Shell, and the Bodo group (and is part-funded by the oil big and Nigerian regulators) has been licensed as 98% full.

Nonetheless, the PJDM visited websites throughout the space and located crude oil oozing from the soil and floating on waters.

Shell and the BMI insist any occurrences of oil spills within the area are due to theft – recognized within the trade as “oil bunkering”.

“There’s a plan to name again the contractors to wash these areas to specification, to straightforward,” Boniface Dumpe, a director on the BMI, informed the PJDM.

“It’s the accountability of all stakeholders, Shell, sure, to maintain their amenities, to make sure that re-oiling doesn’t come from their amenities.

“However for the areas which were cleaned. I might assume that some accountability can also be for the group to make sure that some unlawful actions doesn’t additionally trigger re-pollution.”

Shell mentioned it takes energetic measures to stop oil spills brought on by oil bunkering.

The corporate mentioned: “We take in depth steps to stop this exercise and the spills it causes together with aerial surveillance, eradicating unlawful connections on pipelines, and by constructing metal cages to guard wellheads.”

The alleged failings within the oil clean-up come as Shell prepares to promote its Nigerian subsidiary, the SPDC, to Renaissance Africa, a consortium of native and worldwide corporations.

Some locals in Ogoniland have accused the oil big of “working away” from correctly cleansing up the land and waters it’s alleged to have polluted.

In addition they concern Shell should revenue from the realm by merely buying and selling the oil extracted from the area in future.

“The operations of whichever oil operator takes over the related pipelines may have an infinite influence on their day-to-day life,” Joe Snape, a lawyer at Leigh Day, informed the PJDM.

“There’s extremely little element about what these offers will result in.

“It’s unclear how Renaissance [Africa] will act going ahead. No less than with Shell we now have technique of holding them to account.”

Mineral merchandise, like petroleum oil and gasoline, account for 90% of exports from Nigeria, most of which comes from the Niger Delta area.

Locals, whose major supply of livelihood has been agriculture and fishing, informed the PJDM that because the discovery of oil, or what some seek advice from as “black gold”, their residence had been pumped for revenue – by main oil corporations, by oil thieves and by corrupt politicians.

They are saying they’ve seen no profit, solely struggling – like Endurance Ogboe who blames latest oil spills for her failing crops.

“Previously if I harvest I can eat some with my household and even promote some… however for the previous few years I couldn’t get something. It is actually dangerous,” the 42-year-old the PJDM.