A Dutch appeals court ruled last year, following 13 years of
legal battles, that Shell’s Nigerian branch must pay out for a series of leaks
and that the parent company must install new pipeline equipment to prevent
further devastating spills.
Shell said on Friday that it had reached a deal with the
Dutch environmental group Milieudefensie that has helped the affected
communities.
“Under the settlement, The Shell Petroleum Development
Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) as operator of the SPDC joint venture, will pay
an amount of EUR 15 million for the benefit of the communities and the
individual claimants,” it said in a statement.
The deal also confirms the installation of a leak detection
system on 20 pipeline segments in accordance with the Dutch court ruling and
that remediation work has been completed.
Despite acknowledging that the settlement follows up on the
Dutch court ruling, the oil firm said the agreement “is on a no admission of
liability basis, and settles all claims and ends all pending litigation related
to the spills”.
Four Nigerian farmers and fishermen sued Shell in the
Netherlands to pay for cleaning up spills from its pipelines in the Niger
Delta.
They were aided by Milieudefensie, the Dutch branch of
Friends of the Earth.
Shell has always attributed pollution to sabotage and said
it had cleaned up affected areas.
The legal battle has lasted so long that the original
farmers have now all died, but their survivors and the affected communities
pushed on.
“It is a great relief to all of us that after the years of
legal battle with Shell, we will soon be recipients of this money as
compensation for all we have lost,” said Eric Dooh, one of the current
plaintiffs.
Milieudefensie’s director Donald Pols said the settlement
will allow the plaintiffs and their communities to finally get on with their
lives.
But he said it also has a wider significance.
“If we look at the court case as a whole, the major gain is
that a new standard has been set: companies will no longer be able to get away
with pollution and with ignoring human rights,” he said.
“Now they can be called to account.”
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