Monday’s announcement turns out to have been an elaborate hoax, put on by an ad hoc activist group calling itself the Nigerian Justice League.
Established solely for the sake of this con, the group put out a lengthy press release including details of the faux “Comprehensive Shell Remediation Plan for the Niger Delta,” along with phone numbers supposedly for the company’s media relations department — all under the oil giant’s iconic red-and-yellow logo.
Shell is the largest oil producer in Nigeria, a country that holds one of the worst oil safety records on the planet. According to reports, last year alone the West African nation had 2,000 active spills.
The “plan” outlined in the press release had Shell offering up a multibillion-dollar fund to clean the Niger Delta and compensate its inhabitants for loss of livelihood. It further said the company would gradually reduce its oil production in Nigeria to 10 percent of its current output.
A spokesman for Shell, which held its annual meeting Tuesday in the Hague, wouldn’t comment on the press release except to say that “it is a hoax.”
Meanwhile, at least one publication got that news too late.
“Hands up, we were duped on this one,” the Financial Times says in a blog posting.
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