The investigation into corruption by Shell in Nigeria has not yet been completed, but according to the current investigation, according to the Public Prosecution Service, there are already prosecutable offences.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.

Public Prosecution Service is taking Shell’s attention

Bert van Dijk and Vasco van der Boon

The Dutch State will prosecute Shell in two separate cases. The oil and gas multinational is under fire from the Public Prosecution Service (OM) because of possible bribery in Nigeria in 2011 and because of an explosion in June 2014 at Shell Moerdijk. The Public Prosecution Service has announced this on Friday.

Shell has already been summoned for the explosion in Moerdijk. Shell is also being taken to court for a leak of the toxic substance ethylene oxide.

Corruption in Nigeria

The investigation into corruption by Shell in Nigeria has not yet been completed, but according to the current investigation, according to the Public Prosecution Service, there are already prosecutable offences.

The investigation could result in a settlement or a criminal case. At the end of 2017, Shell and a number of former employees were also charged with the same case in Italy. The lawsuit, the largest corruption case in the oil industry, is currently running in Milan.

Barnaby Pace of Global Witness, the non-governmental organization that has made efforts to get Shell to court, calls the announcement of the Public Prosecution an ‘encouraging signal that no company is above the law’.

Bribery

The case concerns the more than $ 1.3 billion that Shell paid in 2011 together with the Italian ENI for the acquisition of the OPL245 oil concession in Nigeria. Shell has known that this money largely ended up with former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, who had previously been convicted of money laundering.

The question in the case is whether Shell knew that Etete would use that money to bribe people. Shell is of the opinion that it was not aware that this might have happened, that it never gave its approval for it and that such payments were never made on behalf of Shell.

An Italian judge, however, found in another case against two intermediaries of the deal that Shell was fully aware that the purchase would lead to corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials. The judge wrote this at the end of last year in the grounds for the conviction of the two intermediaries. They were sentenced to four years in prison.

Large fire

In the case of the explosion in Moerdijk, the PPS suspects Shell of deliberately bringing into or into the soil, air or surface water a substance that has endangered public health. In June 2014 an explosion occurred at a Shell Moerdijk factory, after which a large fire broke out. In addition, two employees suffered burns. There was a lot of inconvenience for local residents and there was millions of euros of damage.

Shell said in a reaction to regret what happened and to take measures to prevent repetition.

Internal procedures

Both the Dutch Safety Board and Shell itself (in an internal investigation) were firm in their opinion. The board was surprised to see that
Shell Moerdijk’s internal procedures have not been properly followed up. ‘

Shell itself concluded that the company should have prevented the explosion on the chemical complex.

Recidivism

The fact that the Public Prosecution Service is proceeding with criminal prosecution is partly due to the fact that it is not the first time that Shell has been negligent in the field of safety and the environment. ‘Recidivism is one of the factors that play a role in the follow-up decision’, the Public Prosecutor states.

The criminal case against Shell for the explosion in Moerdijk is planned at the court session in Den Bosch on 14 and 16 May 2019.
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