Shell Oil Spills Led to Astonishingly High Pollution in Nigeria

[milestogo]

A fisherman displays his oil soaked fishing net on the polluted shoreline in Bodo. PHOTO: GEORGE OSODI/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil spills that haven’t been cleaned up for over eight years have contributed to “astonishingly high” levels of pollution in a Nigerian community, according to a consultant who helped produce a confidential damage assessment for Shell and its partners in the cleanup.

Shell admitted liability for two large oil spills from a broken pipeline in 2008 in Bodo, a Niger Delta fishing community that, according to U.K. court claims, was inundated with over 500,000 barrels of oil—roughly twice the amount when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in 1989. Shell disputed the volume of the spills but reached an out-of-court settlement with the community for £55 million in 2015—or around $80 million at the time—after facing a lawsuit in London.

An environmental damage study was also conducted that year as part of efforts to clean up the area under the Bodo Mediation Initiative, which included Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, civil society groups, and members of the local community and government. The study found that “astonishingly high” levels of pollution remained in Bodo’s mangroves and creeks years after the spill, endangering the community, wrote Kay Holtzmann, the former director of the cleanup project, in a Jan. 26 letter to the Bodo Mediation Initiative, which was seen by The Wall Street Journal.

“The soil in the mangroves is literally soaked with hydrocarbons,” wrote Mr. Holtzmann, who oversaw the study but no longer works for the initiative. ”Whoever is walking in the creeks cannot avoid contact with toxic substances.” Mr. Holtzmann wrote that the study dictated a need for health screenings and should be widely publicized. He wrote that Shell has denied him permission to publish the study’s results in a scientific journal and exposed Bodo, an expanse of Niger Delta swamp and mangroves, to dangerous levels of toxins. “SPDC has no right to conceal data important for the public although they might be unpleasant,” the letter said, referring to Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria, the Anglo-Dutch company’s Nigerian subsidiary.

Read more about how Big Oil screws over Nigeria: https://www.wsj.com/articles/shell-oil-spills-led-to-astonishingly-high-pollution-in-nigeria-1490295449

[Turbineguy]

1. I wonder just how much of that settlement

ended up in the pockets of crooked Nigerian government officials.

[Igel]

2. Yup.

Then again militants have operated there for years. They kidnap workers. Including cleanup crews.

They blow up oil oil pipelines. Why, just last year in this very area they intentionally ruptured several pipelines and caused some large oil spills. It was in the news, so it's not like it's a secret. And they're open about it--they want all the control in the area, all the revenue, and don't want to share. Until then their aim is zero production.

Half a truth is worse than a lie.