Oil contracts signed secretly in Uganda and exposed by PLATFORM will allow major oil companies to flare gas with impunity in the country’s Lake Alberta region on the border with Congo. As the New York Times reports:
“There are no provisions for fines or penalties in the event of an oil spill or other problems,” Mr. Lay said. “This is extraordinary given that companies will be operating in one of the regions with the greatest biodiversity in Africa.”
“Production is going to start in 2010 with no environmental assessment having yet been carried out,” said Platform’s researcher in Uganda, Taimour Lay. “Once we move to major production, the legal rights given to the companies to flare gas will lead to pollution, carbon emissions and local conflict, as has happened in Nigeria.” Mr. Lay added, “Under these Ugandan contracts, the government won’t even have the right to ask them to stop flaring.”
The contracts, known as Production Sharing Agreements, were kept secret until they were leaked to PLATFORM, and analysed in a new report produced by the Civil Society Coalition on Oil in Uganda.
Read more coverage of the report’s findings on the BBC News website and visit PLATFORM’s Carbon Web project for the full press release and further analysis.
Concerned employees could be joining global campaigners to demand changes from Shell; including an end to daily gas flaring and oil spills in the Niger Delta. Stories in the Financial Times and The Times today revealed that:
Contact details for 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell have been sent to environmental and human rights campaign groups, ostensibly by disaffected staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company.
The database, from Shell’s internal directory, gives names and telephone numbers for all the company’s workforce worldwide, including some home numbers used for business.
It was e-mailed with a 170-page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell Oil dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm allegedly done by the company’s operations in Nigeria.
If substantiated, this leak could represent a major crisis of confidence in Shell’s Nigerian operations. Extracts from the cover email seen by PLATFORM express ‘disgust’ at Shell’s disregard for the environment and human rights in Nigeria, and outline solutions that could easily prevent some of the worst abuses.
Positive news this morning as a Dutch court ruling announced that four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands can hold Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Nigeria accountable, a short distance from Shell’s global headquarters in The Hague. For more details please see the press release from Friends of the Earth Netherlands. If found liable, Shell could be forced to pay compensation and ordered to clean up ‘massive’ oil spills in the Niger Delta.
Shell Nigeria to appear before Dutch court
Friends of the Earth and Nigerian farmers pleased with first success in lawsuit against Shell
Amsterdam, 30 December – Friends of the Earth Netherlands (in Dutch:
Milieudefensie) are pleased with the ruling from the court of The Hague.
Today, the court held that the Dutch court has jurisdiction over the
operations of Shell Nigeria. Friends of the Earth Netherlands together with
four farmers from Nigeria filed the lawsuit against both Shell Nigeria and
the Shell parent company in the Netherlands earlier this year in order to
expose the oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Shell asked the court to rule
that the Dutch court has no jurisdiction over Shell Nigeria. Given that
Shell has now lost this point, an important hurdle has been overcome, and
the ‘real’ lawsuit can begin.
A selection of sights and sounds from the Niger Delta, courtesy of Friends of the Earth, whose court case against Shell’s oil spills began on 3rd December in The Hague.
Find out more details about the case here, and read an article by Niger Delta activist and lawyer Chima Williams here.
Niger Delta activist and lawyer Chima Williams writes in The Guardian Comment is Free section today, revealing some of the ugly details of the Shell oil spills case in The Hague and placing Shell’s appalling environmental record under scrutiny:
As Nigerian villagers take Shell to court over huge oil spills, it’s time for the group to take responsibility for polluting practices
A court in The Hague considers on 3 December whether Shell can be held liable for alleged pollution in Nigeria, and a ruling is expected on 30 December. This case could set a precedent for corporations based in Europe that exploit lax environmental regulations and violate the rights of communities in the developing world.
In the village of Ikot Ada Udot, south-eastern Nigeria, a rusty complex of tubes pokes five feet out of the ground. A familiar sight to locals, it is known as the “Christmas tree”. But unlike its innocuous namesake, this “tree” is an abandoned oil wellhead owned by oil multinational Shell. According to environmentalists, the wellhead spewed toxic oil and gas into the land and fish ponds of local villagers for months in August 2006, and again in 2007. As of May 2008, the area around the Christmas tree was still heavily polluted and villagers remain destitute.
Oil Multinational Charged in the Hague For Pollution in Nigeria
Tuesday 1 st December
Amsterdam & London – A unique court case, brought by four Nigerian victims of Shell oil spills, in conjunction with Friends of the Earth Netherlands, begins on Thursday 3rd December in the court at The Hague. This is the first time in history that a Dutch company has been brought to trial before a Dutch court for damages abroad.
Villagers in Ikot Ada Udo survey the damage caused by a Shell well head that sprayed toxic oil and gas onto their farmland in August 2006 and August 2007.
The Nigerian farmers and fishers, who lost their livelihoods after oil
from leaking Shell pipelines streamed over their fields and fishing
ponds, are claiming compensation from the Anglo-Dutch oil giant. They also
want Shell to clean up the oil which remains in the land, so that they
can return to farming and fishing.
‘Shaping the Future’: a PLATFORM residency programme of art, activism and education launched with a fiery spectacle at 5pm on Tuesday 10th November at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Lewisham, London. ‘Shaping the Future’ is led by the arts and ecology group PLATFORM, and speakers at the launch included the Mayor of Greenwich, Doreen Lawrence, (mother of murdered teenagerStephen Lawrence), and Maria Saro-Wiwa, (widow of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa).
MOBO award winning artist-activist NNEKA will play London’s ULU on 4th November, and when NNEKA sings, the outrage of the Niger Delta collides with hip-hop, Afrobeat and soul. The result is an outstanding performance that has made her music a huge success.
Her songs call for justice with an unforgettable voice. This is an act not to miss.
Visit her website for your free download and for a chance to win NNEKA concert tickets.
Many times she sang those words, wrapping up the pain and endurance of Niger Deltans, for years she shook the wall of indifference around her, and finally, we were moved.
On 1st October, NNEKA was awarded this years’ MOBO (Music of Black Origin) prize for best African Artist. NNEKA is an artist of rare achievement, whose outspoken views about the exploitation of the oil-rich Niger Delta burns deep into her lyrics. Her music has lifted the Niger Delta struggle into powerful songs, charging the airwaves of the BBC and the UK Top 40 with her politics.
Her story begins far away from the media spotlight in the oil-city of Warri, in the Niger Delta. A few years after she arrived on the European music scene she is now clocking up +1.5 million hits on her new music video, ‘Heartbeat’. NNEKA’s success has heightened her awareness of the development denied to her people in the Delta, in spite of the oil wealth extracted from the region.
A long-time supporter of the Niger Delta cause, and a headline artist at remember saro-wiwa events, NNEKA takes every opportunity to remind the West of the heavy cost of Nigerian oil, heaping criticism on the destructive impact of companies like Shell, Chevron and the Nigerian government.
The singer says her influences include Nigeria’s iconic Afro-beat performer Fela Kuti as well more contemporary acts like a US rapper Mos Def.
She also cites Nigeria writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa as an inspiration. Mr Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Sani Abacha government in 1995 for his efforts to campaign against corruption in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
“Stand up against; corruption, against injustice, against bribery and hypocrisy…….RAISE UR VOICES,” she says on her MySpace page.
A court decision on whether 4 Nigerian farmers can sue Shell in The Hague is due in the next few hours... Let's hope for the best.11:34:29 AM December 30, 2009from TweetDeck
Many times she sang those words, wrapping up the pain and endurance of Niger Deltans, for years she shook the wall of indifference around her, and finally, we were moved.
