This article is part of the dossier: Nigeria’s silent killer: the deadly price of oil

By Kelechukwu Irouoma, Ruth Olurounbi: Posted on Thursday, 30 April 2020 21:23

In this third and final report, we see how the oil spill clean-up in Ogoniland is still not complete, despite recommendations by the UN and money distributed to the Nigerian government.

The people of Bodo were compensated by Shell after they filed a case in the United Kingdom, where Shell is incorporated. Shell accepted the responsibility for the oil spills of Bodo in 2008 and 2009. The parties settled in 2015 and $83.4m, 82% short of their original demand of $454.9m was paid to the people of Bodo. read more

Malabu Scandal: Shell, Eni seek to stop Nigeria in $1 billion UK lawsuit

Two international oil firms, Shell and Eni, paid out about $1.1 billion to Nigerian government accounts in the UK which then transferred most of the money to Malabu, a company then controlled by Nigeria’s former petroleum minister, Dan Etete.

May 1, 2020: Oladeinde Olawoyin

Two oil giants, Eni and Shell, have argued to stop or stay proceedings in a $1 billion lawsuit brought by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN).

Virtual hearings in the case took place between Tuesday and Thursday during which the companies argued to halt the $1 billion English suit as duplicating the ongoing criminal trial and parallel civil claim being brought by Nigeria in Italy over the controversial OPL 245. read more

U.S. LEGAL NEWS: APRIL 23, 2020 / 5:12 PM 

LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its inquiry into Royal Dutch Shell’s 2011 acquisition of an offshore oil block in Nigeria, the Anglo-Dutch company said on Thursday.

“The SEC has notified us that it has closed its inquiry into Shell in relation to OPL 245,” a Shell spokeswoman said.

On Wednesday, Italy’s Eni, which acquired the OPL 245 block together with Shell, said the SEC had also closed its investigation into its activity in Nigeria, as well as other activities in Congo. read more

Nigeria: Malabu Scandal – Activists Kick As Italy Appoints Accused Official As ENI CEO

By Oladeinde Olawoyin

21 April 2020

The Italian government has re-nominated Claudio Descalzi as Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Italy’s largest multinational company and the country’s largest foreign oil producer in Africa.

Mr Descalzi is set to maintain the leadership role despite an ongoing criminal trial over corruption allegations surrounding the billion dollar 2011 acquisition by Shell and Eni of Nigeria’s OPL 245 oil license.

Italian prosecutors allege that the $1.1bn paid by Eni and their partner Shell for the OPL 245 licence was used to pay former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete and was “intended for payment to a former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, members of the government, and other Nigerian public officials”. read more

Thousands of barrels of oil spouted out of the broken pipeline at Bodo for 10 weeks before Shell finally clamped it on 7 November 2008. © CEHRD

Pastor Christian Kpandei contemplates the damage done to his fish farm in Bodo, Nigeria, May 2011. The farm flourished before the August 2008 oil spill, but the pollution destroyed his fish farm, leaving him and his workers without a regular income. © Amnesty International

3.2.1 FOUR FARMERS’ CASES

The first of the pollution-related cases marked the first time that any Dutch company had been sued in the Dutch court for the operations of its subsidiaries overseas.

In 2008, four Nigerian farmers (Eric Barizaa Dooh, Fidelis Ayoro Oguru, Alali Efanga and Friday Alfred Akpan), along with Milieudefensie, the Dutch section of Friends of the Earth, filed claims against RDS and SPDC.44

They are seeking to obtain compensation for alleged damage to fish ponds and land caused by oil spills from two underground pipelines and an oil well operated by Shell in the villages of Goi, Ikot Ada Udo and Oruma between 2004 and 2007.45 read more

Oil pollution in Kegbara-Dere (K-Dere) community in Ogoniland, Rivers State, Niger Delta, Nigeria. This community has experienced multiple oil spills since Shell started operations there in the 1960s. September 2015. © Michael Uwemedimo/cmapping.net

Shell’s pipelines in Ogoniland are old and poorly maintained. There have been several spills and in 2009 there was a huge fire, at the Bomu Manifold, at K. Dere, Rivers state. September 2015. © Michael Uwemedimo/cmapping.net

Dead periwinkles covered in oily mud from Bodo creek, Nigeria, May 2011. There were two massives spills in August 2009 from a poorly maintained Shell pipeline. © Amnesty International

Signboard warning people not to enter stream that has been contaminated by oil spills, Ogale, Rivers State, Nigeria. Every year there are hundreds of spills in the Niger Delta, and clean-up is often slow and ineffective. © Amnesty International

3.2 ENVIRONMENTAL CASES (Pages 16, 17, 18 & 10)

There are three separate legal proceedings taking place against Shell in Dutch and British courts relating to oil pollution. This has devastated the Niger Delta.

Data from Shell’s own spill incident reports reveal that from 2011-18 the company reported a huge number of spills – 1,010 – along the network of pipelines and wells that it operates.25 Spills have a variety of causes – from third-party tampering, to operational faults and corrosion of aged facilities. Shell blames most spills on theft and pipeline sabotage, and are not due to its own negligence.26 read more

Esther Kiobel and Victoria Bera sit with their lawyer as a Dutch court hears the first arguments in an historic case against Shell, in which the oil giant stands accused of instigating a raft of horrifying human rights violations committed by the Nigerian government against the Ogoni people in the 1990s, on February 12, 2019 in The Hague, Netherlands. © Pierre Crom/Getty Images

 KIOBEL AND OTHERS V SHELL

Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta were first, and most effectively, put under the spotlight in the 1990s by Ken Saro-Wiwa, an acclaimed Nigerian writer. Saro-Wiwa led a community organisation in his home area, Ogoniland, called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP said that while outsiders had grown rich on the oil that was pumped from under their soil, pollution from oil spills and gas flaring had, “led to the complete degradation of the Ogoni environment, turning our homeland into an ecological disaster.”10 read more

The Nigerian government on Monday lost a bid to postpone a massive claim against oil giants, Eni and Shell, in a London court.

Royal Dutch Shell and Eni’s bid to block a $1.1 billion civil claim over corruption allegations in Nigeria will go ahead next month, Mark Pelling, a judge in a London court ruled on Monday.

The court ruled that it should not wait for a connected Italian ruling.

Nigeria wanted the April court date postponed until January 2021, when a connected criminal case in Milan will have concluded. read more

Spills in Nigeria for Shell increased to 2,000 tonnes in 2019, from 157 incidents, the company has disclosed in its annual report, up from 1,600 tonnes from 111 incidents in 2018.

by Ed Reed: 12/03/2020, 10:50 am

These are predominantly a result of sabotage, the company said. Of the 164 spills of more than 100 kg of crude, 95% were the result of “illegal activities by third parties”. Flaring also increased in 2019 in Nigeria, by around 10%.

The number of spills caused as a result of its own operational issues fell to seven incidents, from 15 in 2018. This saw the volume of crude spilled fall to around 30 tonnes of crude, from 400 tonnes in 2018. Where there have been operational spills, SPDC pays compensation to people and communities. read more

MILAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) – An Italian judge has ordered a Nigerian businessman to stand trial for alleged international corruption relating to a Nigeria oil graft case involving Eni and Shell, a judicial source and his lawyer said on Wednesday. Milan prosecutors allege that Alhai Aliyu Abubakar played a central role in one of the oil industry’s biggest scandals in years, handing out more than $500 million in cash to powerful Nigerian government officials.

The money is alleged to come out of the $1.3 billion licence fee paid by Eni and Shell for access to the OPL-245 offshore oilfield located in the southern Niger Delta. read more

Global Investigations Review

Dutch bar unfazed by justice minister’s “unusual” contact with Shell prosecutors

By James Thomas: 18 February 2020

Dutch lawyers seem relaxed about recent revelations that the local justice minister and public prosecutors have been in frequent contact about a bribery investigation into Shell.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Lawyers question judge’s peculiar ruling in Shell privilege case

By James Thomas: 30 October 2019

Legal experts in the Netherlands have said that a recent privilege ruling against Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell will likely not stand up in an appeals court.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Shell’s in-house lawyers not covered by privilege, court rules

By James Thomas: 25 October 2019

A Rotterdam court has ruled that Shell’s in-house lawyers are insufficiently independent from the company and cannot claim legal privilege, in a decision connected to a Dutch investigation into alleged bribery by Shell in Nigeria. read more

FEBRUARY 17, 2020 / 9:28 PM

YENAGOA, Nigeria, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s state oil company and its joint venture partners have spent $360 million on cleaning up the Niger Delta oil heartland in the past two years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Monday, but locals said little work had been done.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude oil exporter. Oil sales account for around 90% of its foreign currency earnings but oil spills in the southern Niger Delta region have caused pollution and angered locals. read more

A Milan court has rejected a prosecution request to hear testimony from a former legal adviser of Eni who has accused the company of spying on judges…

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

MILAN, Feb 5 (Reuters) – A Milan court has rejected a prosecution request to hear testimony from a former legal adviser of Eni who has accused the company of spying on judges, offering a boost to the Italian oil firm as it fights bribery allegations over a Nigerian oil field.

The ruling removes the prospect of months of testimony voicing allegations of wrongdoing by Eni and sets a timetable for finally reaching a verdict in the long-running case.

The decision is the second piece of bad news in a few days for Milan prosecutors after a witness last week refused to confirm a key statement. read more

The Ministry of Economic Affairs ignored signals and reports that there were many problems with Centrum Veilig Wonen (CVW) – the company responsible for reinforcing homes in Groningen against fracking earthquakes – for years. The then National Coordinator for Groningen Hans Alders warned the Ministry that the company was not complying with agreements, and that Groningen residents were the victims of this, in the summer of 2017. But the Ministry claims that it only became aware of the problems in May 2019, RTV Noord reports based on an email exchange between Alders and the Ministry, and statements from Minister Eric Wiebes and his Ministry. read more

February 1, 2020

By: Yusuf Alli, Managing Editor, Northern Operation

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Friday said he did not advise President Muhammadu Buhari against the trial of those involved in the $1.09billion Malabu Oil Block Settlement Agreement.

He said under his watch, the Federal Government has been trying to bring more suspects to trial in Italy and London.

He also said a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki  was not put on trial for allegedly forging the Senate rules because there was no prima facie case against Saraki. read more

English translation of an article published by the Dutch newspaper NRC

Shell Corruption case: Minister Grapperhaus spoke regularly with the OM about a possible settlement

Article on PAGE 7

CORRUPTION RESEARCH

Minister wanted to know everything about possible Shell settlement

Minister Grapperhaus said he would not interfere in the criminal case against Shell. He did, however, talk to the OM (Dutch Public Prosecution Service) about settling several times.

By our editors Carola Houtekamer and Merijn Rengers

AMSTERDAM. On Monday 2 July 2018, Prime Minister Mark Rutte will be sitting at Donald Trump in the Oval Office for 45 minutes. While the American president complains about the European car industry, Rutte tries to keep the atmosphere good. That is in the interest of the Netherlands. Afterwards, Trump has half an hour for five men that Rutte has taken to Washington and who are waiting in an adjoining room. They are the leaders of Philips, Schiphol, Aegon, NXP and Ben van Beurden, the boss of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell. read more