oil spills
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Amnesty & FoE Slam UN’s Reliance on Shell Data
Today Amnesty International joined the chorus of disapproval and outrage at UNEP’s decision to clear Shell of all responsibility for oil spills in Nigeria. UNEP has been widely criticised for recently using Shell data to announce that the company is only 10% responsible for the causes of oil spills. “Relying on these figures would be [...]
What’s Shell & UNEP Hiding in Nigeria?
As any child educated in Nigeria will tell you, oil was discovered in Oloibiri, Nigeria in 1956. Oil spills in Nigeria date back to those early days of exploration and production and increased significantly with the expansion of infrastructure onshore and offshore in 1970s. All the more shocking then that Mike Cowing, the UNEP’s leading expert on [...]
UN Report Accused of Bias
The top story in The Guardian today is the global outrage at a UNEP study which ‘exonerates’ Shell for oil spills in Nigeria. What started as an environmental audit of Ogoniland has become another manipulative PR strategy. A three-year investigation by the United Nations will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in [...]
UNEP Report: More Harm Than Good?
There are some things that the debate over oil spills in Nigeria cannot change. Under Nigerian law, Shell has principal responsibility to clean up all spills from its facilities, regardless of whether the cause is sabotage or neglect. And Shell has all the resources and technology to stop these spills from happening. If the UNEP [...]
Nigerian Regulators Need Real Powers
Breaking years of silence, politicians and regulators in Nigeria are talking tough on oil spills in the aftershock of the BP disaster. Officials had stern words with Shell over its inadequate clean-up activities, and Exxon Mobil, who were ‘cautioned’ over a recent spill of over a million gallons. Upping the stakes, the governor of Delta [...]
The $20 Billion Question
On day 58 of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, the US government forced BP to allocate $20 billion to compensate victims affected. While US lawmakers decried the fact that only $71 million had been paid out last Tuesday, the contrast with the Niger Delta is striking. Victims in the small village of Ebebu have waited for 40 [...]
Will BP Oil Spill Make Shell ‘Come Clean’?
As the US government takes BP to task over the disasterous Gulf of Mexico spill, many Nigerians (including twitter users) are asking, ‘what about Shell?’. There is nothing clean about Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta, where daily oil spills are frequently ignored for months and where ‘clean up’ methods include dumping oil-drenched soil into pits before [...]
Four Nigerian Farmers Take Shell to Court in the Hague
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 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 [...]
Shell in the spotlight over ‘human rights tragedy’
Kate Allen of Amnesty International UK writes in The Guardian today, highlighting the human rights impacts of Shell’s pollution in the Niger Delta. If the oil giant truly wants reconciliation in the Niger Delta, its incoming CEO must take concrete action A new chief executive takes the helm at Shell today. Peter Voser will preside [...]
