Compensation talks will begin in Nigeria between lawyers
for Royal Dutch Shell and for 15,000 Nigerian villagers who say their
livelihoods were destroyed by oil spills from pipelines operated by the
company. The Nigerians launched a suit against Shell at the High Court in
London in March 2012, seeking millions of dollars in compensation for
two oil spills in 2008 that polluted the waterways of the Bodo fishing
communities in the Niger Delta. The legal action is being closely watched by the industry and by
environmentalists for precedents that could have an impact on other big
pollution claims against oil majors.
A vast maze of mangrove swamps and creeks, the Niger Delta is home
to communities of subsistence farmers and fishermen living alongside the
multi-billion-dollar oil industry.
A Shell spokesman confirmed that talks would begin on Monday September 9, 2013 between
Leigh Day and lawyers for the Anglo-Dutch firm. They will take place in
Port Harcourt, the main city in the Delta, and will be attended by
representatives of the Bodo communities. The region has been plagued by a range of problems including
sabotage, kidnappings of oil workers for ransom, theft of crude from
pipelines, armed rebellions, and conflict between communities over
clean-up contracts or compensation deals.
Shell accepts responsibility for the Bodo spills but the two sides
disagree about the volume spilt and the number of local people who lost
their livelihoods as a result. A previous round of compensation talks
broke down in 2012, before the lawsuit.
