By Estelle Shirbon, LONDON UK
The United Kingdom Supreme
Court ruled on Wednesday that it was too late for Nigerian claimants to sue two
Shell subsidiaries over a 2011 offshore oil spill they say had a devastating
long-term impact on the coastal area where they live.A Nigerian woman walks past a sign on polluted land warning of contamination in the Ogale community in the oil rich Niger Delta, Nigeria
The case was one of a series
of legal battles Shell has been fighting in London courts against residents of
Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, a region blighted by pollution, conflict
and corruption related to the oil and gas industry.
The action stemmed from the
leakage of an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil on Dec. 20, 2011, during
the loading of an oil tanker at Shell’s giant Bonga oil field, 120 km off the
coast of the delta.
A group of 27,800 individuals
and 457 communities have been trying to sue Shell, saying the resulting oil
slick polluted their lands and waterways, damaging farming, fishing, drinking
water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.
But a panel of five Supreme
Court justices unanimously upheld rulings by two lower courts that found they
had brought their case after the expiry of a six-year legal deadline for taking
action.
“The Supreme Court rejects the
claimants’ submission. There was no continuing nuisance in this case,” said
justice Andrew Burrows, delivering the ruling.
Shell had disputed the
claimants’ allegations, saying the Bonga spill did not impact the shoreline.
The court did not rule on the disputed facts as it was seeking only to decide
the legal point about nuisance.
Just two Nigerian citizens
were appellants in the Supreme Court case, but the ruling will also apply to
the thousands of other claimants.
Shell said the Supreme Court
ruling had brought to an end all legal claims in English courts related to the
spill.
“While the 2011 Bonga spill
was highly regrettable, it was swiftly contained and cleaned up offshore,” a
Shell spokesperson said.
A lawyer for the Nigerian
appellants did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The Supreme Court has previously
ruled against Shell in another case involving pollution in the Niger Delta. In
February 2021, it allowed a group of 42,500 farmers and fishermen from the
Ogale and Bille communities to sue Shell over spills, and that case is currently going through the High Court.
In a separate case, Shell agreed in 2015 after a protracted legal battle in London to pay out 55 million pounds ($70 million) to the delta’s Bodo community in compensation for two spills.
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