Internal Shell documents disclosed in an ongoing UK court case show the company kept a major Nigerian pipeline running for years, even though its own staff had warned extensive illegal oil-theft was taking place, which resulted in oil spills throughout the Delta.
The papers were analysed in a recent report, published by Amnesty International and seven partner organisations this week, including The Corner House, Hawkmoth, HEDA Resource Centre, and SOMO.
The case was brought by two Nigerian communities in 2015, Bille and Ogale, who have accused Shell and its former subsidiary SPDC of causing serious environmental damage.
The account in the report centres on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line near Bille, a river town in the coastal province of Rivers State, which carries 150,000 barrels of oil a day at full capacity.
According to the Amnesty-led report, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), was exempted in 2013 from parts of Shell’s own global safety standards.
