A new report says the oil giants should foot a $12-billion bill to clean up a spill in Nigeria's Bayelsa state -- but they have denied wrongdoing. Instead, Shell and Eni say illegal refineries and oil theft are to blame.
The Oruma community in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region is still suffering from a spill in 2005 when oil leaked from a Shell pipeline onto farmland.
The crude oil leak caused extensive damage to local ecosystems, turning the lush forest -- once the main source of income for farmers and fishers -- into a contaminated landscape.
One of the fishponds, which used to teem with fish, has been neglected for many years because it no longer produces anything for the farmers. Moreover, a close look at the surface reveals that water still smells of crude oil.
"Even though we plant, the oil inside will surely kill the crops that we plant," Chief Ernest Oginaba, a local farmer, told DW. "So we feel very bad. All these places are condemned, nobody can use it again."
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and churns out nearly 1 million barrels of crude every day.
Shell prevails in latest legal battle
In a historic ruling in 2021, a Dutch court held Shell accountable for the disaster and ordered it to compensate the Oruma community for the harm. However, even though most people have yet to get the money, the case has opened the door for new petitions.
Just last week, Britain's Supreme Court ruled in favor of Shell in another oil pollution case in the Niger Delta.
According to the ruling, it was too late for the complainants to sue two Shell subsidiaries for an offshore spill that occurred during the loading of an oil tanker at Shell's Bonga oil field in 2011.
"The chair [UK judges] has not denied that it happened," said China Williams, a barrister and environmental activist who has been instrumental in instituting court cases in London on behalf of various communities in the Niger Delta.
"The litigants can call for a review of the Supreme Court judgment if they can prove that the damage is continuous," said Williams.
Dirty legacy
According to the report issued by the Bayelsa State and Environmental Commission, the total volume of oil spilled in Bayelsa is at least ten times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker catastrophe, which damaged 1,000 km (621 miles) along the Alaskan coastline.
The report said the two oil giants must pay at least $12 billion (Ꞓ11.11 billion) for the cleanup.
However, the oil firms argued that they are not responsible, blaming the oil spills on saboteurs and crude oil theft.
Along with compensation, the report urged significant legal changes to the control of the oil and gas industry in the United States, the UK, Europe and Nigeria.
Finally, the research outlined a comprehensive set of remedies that would undo the harm done to Bayelsa and ensure that oil firms prospecting in other regions of Nigeria and other parts of Africa do not replicate the report's listed behaviors.
"The damage is irreparable," Pere Wapeabiama David Amakiri, paramount ruler of the Oruma Community, told DW.
"For us it's the victory that we have got, the precedent that we've been able to set," Amakiri said, adding that it would be a lesson others can still follow.
"[Oil] companies will be a little bit more cautious, a little bit more careful in carrying out their operations," he said.
Impact of oil leak on health
The impact of the oil pollution is not limited to the environment. The report proved that toxic pollutants were also found in residents' blood.
"The report said after taking over 1,600 blood samples from people living in this affected area of oil spills, they found toxins at very high levels in the blood of these people," DW correspondent Olisa Chukwumah said.
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"Also in the water, which they say is a million times higher than safe levels and also things that could cause cancer risk and lung diseases and problems for people."
Communities and activists have long accused oil-producing firms like the British-owned Shell and the Italian-owned Eni of failing to secure and maintain the pipelines.
If you go around the creeks in Bayelsa, you will weep for the region and the state," Dr. Stanley Boro, a developmental and environmental scholar, told DW.
"The level of damage these things have caused cuts across their social life, economic life and even politically."
Edited by: Keith Walker
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