Shell offers to pay $51m for Nigeria oil spill

Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell has offered to pay up to $51 million in compensation for two oil spills in Nigeria in 2008 after a London court rejected a larger claim.

Around 11,000 residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta represented by law firm Leigh Day appealed in 2011 to a London court for more than 300 million pounds in compensation for the spilling of 500,000 barrels of oil.

The London High Court rejected the claimants’ attempts to expand the scope of the compensation, ruling that the pipeline operator could not be held responsible for damage caused by oil theft.

Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) said that “from the outset, we’ve accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo. We hope the community will now direct their UK legal representatives to stop wasting even more time pursuing enormously exaggerated claims and consider sensible and fair compensation offers.” 

Massive oil theft, sabotage of infrastructure and leaks from ageing pipelines are cutting into the profits of oil majors operating in Nigeria, as well as damaging the public finances of the African economy.