Shell — the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant and perennial sin stock — is back with its annual feel-good campaign: The Giving Pump. You fill up at a purple pump; money goes to local charities; everyone smiles for Instagram. Shell’s own press release beams: “The Giving Pump goes to show how small choices—like where you fuel up—can add up to meaningful change,” says Barbara Stoyko, SVP for Mobility & Convenience Americas. “The Giving Pump works so well because of our generous retailers. They are the ones selecting the charities benefitted by our purple pumps because they know the causes that matter most to the customers in their communities.” And St. Jude’s ALSAC chimes in: “We are grateful for our friends at Shell… Every small act of kindness… helps St. Jude advance scientific research and treatment…” Lovely words, quoted verbatim from Shell’s 9 Sept 2025 release. Read the release.
Leigh Day
Purple Pump, Black Ledger: Shell’s Charity PR Meets Its Dirty Past
Cut, run, and leave the mess: UN experts call out Shell’s Nigeria ‘experiment’
Cut, run, and leave the mess: UN experts call out Shell’s Nigeria ‘experiment’—and the sin-stock’s biggest backers keep cashing the cheques”
Divestment without detox: when the clean-up plan is ‘exit.’
Shell—the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant, otherwise known as the world’s favorite sin stock—has discovered a thrilling new frontier in corporate innovation: sell the onshore assets, skip the proper clean-up, and let someone else hold the bag. Unfortunately for Shell, a phalanx of United Nations human-rights experts just said the quiet part out loud—formally warning that recent asset sell-offs in Nigeria may have breached international human-rights law and “lacked transparency.” The experts expressed “grave concern” and accused the oil majors of using “Nigeria… as an experiment for divestment without clean-up.”
Shell to face a full trial in UK High Court in 2027 for Nigerian Pollution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday 20 June 2025
High Court trial finds that Shell plc and its former Nigerian subsidiary can be held legally responsible for legacy oil pollution in Nigeria.
The High Court has ruled that Shell plc and its former Nigerian subsidiary can be held legally responsible for legacy, or historic, oil pollution which has devastated the environments of two communities in Nigeria. The judgement means that Shell, and its former Nigerian subsidiary, can be held liable for oil spills and leaks going back many years.
Years of chronic oil spills have left the Bille and Ogale communities, which have a combined population of 50,000, without clean water, unable to farm and fish and with serious ongoing risk to public health. Shell tried to prevent these claims from getting to trial with a range of technical, legal arguments that have now been firmly rejected by the Court.
After a four-week High Court preliminary issues trial from 13 February to Friday 7 March 2025, Mrs Justice May ruled on Friday 20 June 2025 that Shell’s attempts to restrict the scope of the upcoming full trial, to be held in 2027, had failed. She made several findings that are important for environmental claims generally.
Claims for legacy pollution
· Shell had argued that there was a strict five-year limitation period and that the communities were barred from claiming in relation to any oil spills that took place more than five years ago, even if they had not cleaned up the pollution. The judge rejected this and left it open to the communities to claim for oil spills which occurred more than five years ago, including if Shell has failed to clean them up properly.
· The judge found that a failure to clean up could be an ongoing breach of Shell’s legal obligation to clean up and could create a fresh right to make a legal claim for every day that the pollution remained. The judge also considered that an oil spill could be a trespass and, where that was the case, “a new cause of action will arise each day that oil remains on a claimant’s land”.
· This is a very significant development in these claims and more broadly for legacy environmental pollution caused by multinational corporations around the world. The legal position following the UK Supreme Court case of Jalla v Shell International Trading and Shipping Vo Ltd [2024] AC 595 appeared to be that corporations could not be held liable for legacy pollution if the claimants failed to file their claim within the relevant limitation period. However, the Judge distinguished this claim from Jalla and made it clear that the claimants are not prevented from bringing claims if a polluter has left contamination on their land, even if a spill happened many years ago.
Illegal bunkering and refining
· During the preliminary issues trial Shell sought to blame much of the pollution in the Niger Delta on illegal activities such as oil theft (known as ‘bunkering’) or local artisanal refining of oil. The communities’ lawyers, Leigh Day, argued that Shell had repeatedly failed to take basic steps to stop the bunkering and resulting illegal refining and oil pollution, from taking place.
· Shell argued that it could never be liable for pollution arising from bunkering or illegal refining. The judge rejected Shell’s arguments and found that Shell could be liable for damage from bunkering or illegal refining if it failed to protect its infrastructure, and particularly if there is evidence that its own staff have been complicit in the illegal activities.
· The two communities allege that there is clear evidence that Shell’s employees and contractors are themselves complicit in illegal bunkering which causes devastating pollution in the Niger Delta and this will be a central issue in the trial which is due to take place in 2027. The communities are currently preparing to cite substantial evidence to support their allegations of complicity.
Liability of Shell plc
· Shell argued at the preliminary issues trial that the Nigerian legal framework prevented claims against its parent company, Shell plc, for oil spills from pipelines. The judge rejected this argument and concluded that Shell plc can still be liable for these spills.
· This means that the claims against Shell plc will proceed to trial and there will be scrutiny of Shell plc’s involvement in its Nigerian operation over many years, which resulted in chronic pollution to the Bille and Ogale communities. The decision, together with the Supreme Court’s decision in Okpabi v Shell plc, also opens the door for Nigerian communities to pursue claims against Shell plc in the Nigerian courts, should they choose to do so.
Nigerian Constitution
· The communities also argued that Shell’s pollution breached their constitutional rights under the Nigerian constitution and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Judge found that oil pollution can engage the right to life under the Nigerian Constitution, finding that “knowledge about the impact of environmental harm has moved on such that there is now a greater readiness to see polluting activities as capable of engaging the right to life” (para 326).
· The Judge noted that the “direction of travel” of the Nigerian Supreme Court was to recognise the relevance of fundamental human rights in cases of pollution. However, she did not allow the constitutional claims to proceed against Shell since as an English judge she felt that such a legal development about the interpretation of the Nigerian Constitution should be left to the Nigerian courts.
· The onus is now therefore on the Nigerian courts to clarify this point about whether an oil company such as Shell can be liable for breaches of fundamental constitutional rights arising from serious pollution.
Next steps
The trial is a significant moment in the legal claim by the Bille and Ogale communities, who have been fighting UK-based Shell plc and oil company Renaissance, formerly Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, for a clean-up and compensation since 2015. Neither community has had a proper clean up despite the ongoing serious risk to public health documented by the United National Environment Programme in 2011.
The Bille and Ogale communities were represented in the trial by Leigh Day international team partners Daniel Leader and Matthew Renshaw who instructed Fountain Court’s Anneliese Day KC, Matrix’s Phillippa Kaufmann KC, Anirudh Mathur and Catherine Arnold, 2 Temple Gardens’ Alistair McKenzie and Blackstone Chambers George Molyneaux.
Reacting to the High Court judgement, the leader of the Ogale community, King Bebe Okpabi said:
“It has been 10 years now since we started this case, we hope that now Shell will stop these shenanigans and sit down with us to sort this out. People in Ogale are dying; Shell need to bring a remedy. We thank the judicial system of the UK for this judgment.”
Leigh Day international department partner, Matthew Renshaw said:
“Shell’s attempts to knock out or restrict these claims through a preliminary trial of Nigerian law issues have been comprehensively rebuffed. This outcome opens the door to Shell being held responsible for their legacy pollution as well as their negligence in failing to take reasonable steps to prevent pollution from oil theft or local refining. This sets an important new legal precedent in environmental claims against multinational corporations.
The trial against Shell and its former Nigerian subsidiary, including in relation to the complicity of their staff in illegal activities that caused pollution, will now take place in early 2027. Our clients reiterate, as they have repeatedly for 10 years, that they simply want Shell to clean up their pollution and compensate them for their loss of livelihood. It is high time that Shell stop their legal filibuster and do the right thing.”
ENDS
For media enquiries and interview request please contact:
Mike O’Connor, Senior Media Relations Manager
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 07787 413411
Notes to editors:
1. The Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta (estimated combined population of 50,000) have been fighting for justice against the British oil and gas giant, Shell plc, for ten years. They simply seek to ensure that the oil pollution which has devastated their communities is cleaned up to international standards (which Shell concedes they are legally obliged to do) and that compensation is provided for their loss of livelihoods and the destruction of their way of life, given that these rural communities’ ability to farm and fish has been largely destroyed.
2. On 12 February 2021, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there was a “good arguable case” that Shell plc, the UK parent company, was legally responsible for the pollution caused by its Nigerian subsidiary and that the case would proceed in the English courts. The judgment represented a watershed moment in the fight for corporate accountability. The Supreme Court confirmed in both Okpabi v Shell and its earlier 2019 decision in Lungowe v Vedanta (environmental pollution from a Zambian copper mine) that parent companies of multinational companies in the UK can be held legally responsible for harms committed by their foreign subsidiaries, and the scope of that potential liability is much wider than previously understood.
3. Shell has shown no interest in providing remedy to the Ogale and Bille communities at a time when they are making unprecedented global profits in recent years. The case is proceeding to trial to determine whether Shell’s parent company in London, as well as its former Nigerian subsidiary, are legally responsible for the harm caused to the communities in Nigeria.
4. Shell has sought to delay these claims for over a decade but there will now be a full trial of the Bille individual claims (and likely the Bille Community claim) in March 2027 on the full range of allegations the communities have set out in their legal claims.
From Spills to Silence: Shell Tries to Walk Away From Nigeria’s Poisoned Past
Shell has removed just 7% of the oil. The rest, it seems, is still marinating in the Niger Delta’s mangroves—turning creeks into carcinogenic soup and ruining the livelihoods of over 30,000 people.
Shell, the undisputed champion of greenwashing and environmental impunity, is once again back in court—but not, alas, to accept a long-overdue environmental award. Instead, it’s the latest chapter in one of the oil industry’s most brazen acts of negligence: the systematic poisoning of the Niger Delta, followed by nearly two decades of corporate denial and delay.
From 8 May to 21 May 2025, the High Court in London will hear the Bodo community’s final, desperate plea for environmental justice. This isn’t about new spills. It’s about two massive, uncontained oil spills in 2008—yes, seventeen years ago—that Shell’s then-subsidiary, SPDC, managed to turn into a masterclass in how not to clean up after yourself.
Shell to Nigeria: Here’s Some Benzene and a Legal Brick Wall. Good Luck!
Oil Giant Faces High Court While Still Dodging Accountability Like It’s a Sport
LONDON, APRIL 2025 — It’s the trial that should make your blood boil (unless it’s already poisoned with benzene, in which case you may want to sue Shell). In a London courtroom lined with empty bookcases—symbolic, perhaps, of Shell’s moral library—two Nigerian communities are fighting for the basic right to drink water that doesn’t cause cancer.
Shell? They’re fighting tooth and nail to avoid handing over documents that might reveal what they knew, when they knew it, and how long they sat on their gold-plated hands while entire ecosystems died in oil-soaked silence.
Spills, Spies, and Lies: Shell’s Slick Exit from Nigeria
Wall Street is an invisible partner in Shell’s plunder: happy to enjoy the spoils, deaf to the spoils of war Shell waged on Nigeria’s environment
Cue the confetti: Shell is finally packing its bags after 87 years in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. But before anyone applauds, note that the oil giant is slipping out the back door largely to avoid cleaning up the monumental mess it created, all while still clinging to the profitable parts of the business. In a $2.8 billion “exit” deal announced in January, Shell agreed to sell its onshore Nigerian subsidiary to a local consortium called Renaissance. How noble—except Shell isn’t really riding off into the sunset. The company generously decided to loan the buyers $1.2 billion to help them purchase Shell’s assets and will pony up another $1.3 billion to fund future cleanup and gas projects. Why would an exiting company invest further? Perhaps because those projects conveniently benefit Shell’s remaining 25.6% stake in Nigeria’s gas enterprise. In other words, Shell is getting paid to “leave” while secretly keeping a foot in the door and a hand in the cookie jar.
Shell’s Oil Slick Justice For Spilling 1.5 Million Tons of Crude
Shell. The ever-benevolent corporate giant tirelessly works to maximize shareholder returns while generously bestowing oil spills upon communities that never asked for them. The latest twist in this decades-long environmental horror show? The Ogale and Bille communities of Nigeria—just 50,000 people whose land, water, and livelihoods have been poisoned by Shell’s operations—are finally getting their day in a UK courtroom. And naturally, Shell is fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying for the devastation it caused.
Shell on Trial: The Oil Giant That Poisoned Nigeria Now Faces Justice—If It Can’t Buy Its Way Out
Because Profits Matter More Than Human Lives, Right?
Shell—the undisputed champion of pollution, corporate greed, and dodging responsibility—is finally being forced to answer for its decades of devastation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. On February 13, 2025, the High Court in London opened proceedings against the oil giant, as the Bille and Ogale communities fight to hold Shell accountable for the destruction of their land, water, and livelihoods.
Decades of Spills, Zero Accountability
The 50,000 people living in these communities have spent years living with Shell’s toxic legacy—hundreds of oil spills from Shell’s pipelines, leaving their water undrinkable, their farmland useless, and their health in ruins. And despite making billions in profits from Nigeria’s oil, Shell has offered nothing in terms of compensation or cleanup. Absolutely nothing.
Shell on Trial: The Oil Giant That Poisoned Nigeria
Shell on Trial: The Oil Giant That Poisoned Nigeria and Cashed In
Because Who Needs Ethics When You Have Billions?
Once again, Shell—the ultimate sin stock, planetary arsonist, and poster child for corporate greed—finds itself in a UK courtroom, forced to answer for decades of devastation, pollution, and suffering in Nigeria.
On Thursday, as thousands of people sued Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC, over catastrophic oil spills in the Niger Delta, protesters gathered outside London’s High Court to remind the world that Shell’s business model is built on ruining lives, destroying ecosystems, and dodging accountability.
Shell’s Dirty Little Secret: Fake Clean-Ups, Corrupt Deals, and a Trail of Devastation
Shell’s Business Model: Pollute, Lie, Profit, Repeat: The Real Question: Why Is Shell Still Allowed to Exist?
In a plot twist that surprises absolutely no one, a BBC investigation has exposed Shell for what it truly is—a ruthless, polluting oil giant that lies about cleaning up its mess while quietly slipping out the back door with billions in profit.
A Billion-Dollar ‘Clean-Up’ That Cleans Nothing
Let’s start with Shell’s so-called $1 billion oil clean-up in Nigeria—a project that was supposed to remedy the decades of environmental destruction Shell has inflicted on Ogoniland. But according to a whistleblower, the entire operation is a scam designed to fool the public while stuffing politicians’ pockets.
Shell on Trial, Again
Shell on Trial: The Oil Giant That Polluted Nigeria for Profit Now Faces Justice
Well, well, well—the corporate overlords at Shell are finally being dragged into court for their decades of destruction in the Niger Delta. From February 13 to March 7, 2025, London’s High Court will host a showdown between Shell, the kingpin of oil pollution, and the Ogale and Bille communities, who have spent ten years fighting for their right to drink clean water and not die from corporate negligence.
Shell’s Decades of Toxic Greed
The communities, home to 80,000 people, have been battling Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC since 2015, demanding compensation and a proper cleanup after enduring hundreds of oil spills. These spills contaminated water sources, wiped out farmland and fisheries, and exposed residents to severe health risks. But instead of taking responsibility, Shell has spent more time dodging accountability than it has cleaning up its mess.
Shell: UK Court of Appeal Forces Oil Giant to Stop Hiding Behind Legal Acrobatics
Posted by John Donovan: 10 Dec 2024
Ah, Shell, the epitome of corporate virtue—if your definition of virtue involves destroying ecosystems, ruining livelihoods, and spending decades dodging responsibility like a teenager avoiding chores. In a deliciously overdue smackdown, the UK Court of Appeal just cleared the way for a 2025 trial to address the environmental apocalypse Shell has allegedly unleashed on two Nigerian communities. Shocking no one, Shell has spent the last ten years throwing every legal tantrum imaginable to avoid accountability. But now? Their legal gymnastics may finally run out of steam.
Shell Loses Landmark Case Because Apparently, Destroying Nigerian Communities for Profit Isn’t Enough—They Tried to Weasel Out of Responsibility Too
Shell Loses Landmark Case Because Apparently, Destroying Nigerian Communities for Profit Isn’t Enough—They Tried to Weasel Out of Responsibility Too
Posted by John Donovan: 12 Oct 2024
In a stunning twist that absolutely no one saw coming, oil behemoth Shell, the model of corporate ethics (wink), has lost yet another court battle. This time, the UK Court of Appeal has handed down a major ruling in favor of two Nigerian communities, the Bille and Ogale, whose land, water, and livelihoods have been systematically obliterated by oil pollution—allegedly caused by none other than Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC.
The Bille and Ogale communities have been living in an environmental nightmare for years, courtesy of around 100 oil spills from Shell’s crumbling infrastructure. These spills have rendered their land uninhabitable, poisoned their water, and left them unable to farm or fish. But Shell—because why accept responsibility when you can stall, deflect, and confuse—managed to string this case out for ten years, while thousands of people suffered, and many even died waiting for justice.
Shell’s Legal Gymnastics: How to Destroy a Community and Blame the Victims for Not Having a Map!
Image from Guardian article by Andrew Rowell “Unloveable Shell, the goddess of oil” published 15 Nov 1997
8 Oct 2024
In yet another jaw-dropping display of corporate acrobatics, Shell—the planet’s most prolific polluter with a conscience as black as the oil it spills—is back in court, twisting itself into legal knots to avoid responsibility for decimating Nigerian communities. This time, the British oil giant has managed to turn a simple quest for justice into an impossible scavenger hunt where the prize is… well, more injustice. Welcome to Shell’s sick new game: “Pin the Spill on the Disaster!”
The Shell-Related High Court Spectacle That Puts Reality TV to Shame
Posted by John Donovan: 15 July 2024
In a high-stakes legal drama, a High Court judge just told Leigh Day, the law firm accused of playing fast and loose with £6 million from a Shell pollution settlement, to suck it up and get on with the show. The Nigerian claimants, reeling from Shell’s eco-destruction in the Niger Delta, argued they hadn’t received a formal heads-up about the trial date. But the judge wasn’t buying it.
Leigh Day, the firm representing the Bodo community against the oil behemoth Shell, settled for a cool £55 million in 2014 after the delightful oil spills of 2008 and 2009. £25 million was for individual claims, while £20 million was set aside for the community. The firm is accused of sneaky disbursements, diverting £6 million to an NGO and four Nigerian legal practices without a green light.
Shell’s Spills & Thrills: Nigerian Communities Take the Oil Giant to Court
Posted by John Donovan: 10 June 2024
In the latest episode of “How Low Can Shell Go?”, the oil behemoth is gearing up to defend itself against claims from two Nigerian communities and over 13,000 individuals who are fed up with Shell’s toxic spills wrecking their lives.
Next up on the courtroom drama: a case management conference on June 11-12, 2024, at the High Court in London. This little get-together will set the stage for the 2025 trial where the levels of oil contamination in the Bille community and its horrific impacts will be laid bare.
Shell, ever the slippery operator, announced they’re ditching their onshore operations in Nigeria. But don’t be fooled—this isn’t them riding off into the sunset, it’s just complicating the mess they’ve left behind. The lawsuit, led by the tireless folks at law firm Leigh Day, will put Shell’s legal obligations under the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter for Human and Peoples’ Rights under the microscope, focusing on the right to a clean environment. Who knew we had to drag an oil giant to court to enforce basic human rights?
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