Shell ignored warnings of spill clean-up ‘scam’, whistle-blower tells BBC

A BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that power large Shell has ignored repeated warnings {that a} controversial clean-up operation of oil-polluted areas of southern Nigeria has been beset by issues and corruption.

The multinational headquartered in London, together with the Nigerian authorities, has repeatedly said that work to wash up oil-contaminated websites of Ogoniland, which kicked off round eight years in the past, goes effectively.

However the BBC has found proof that they had been warned repeatedly over a number of years that the scheme, arrange by the federal government and funded by numerous oil companies to the tune of $1bn (£805m), has been affected by a string of points.

One shut observer has described the clean-up venture as a “con” and a “rip-off” that has wasted cash and left the folks of Ogonliland within the Niger Delta area persevering with to stay with the devastating impression of oil air pollution – 13 years after a ground-breaking UN report lifted the lid on the seriousness of their scenario.

Shell advised the BBC: “The working atmosphere within the Niger Delta stays difficult due to the massive scale of unlawful actions similar to oil theft.

“When spills do occur from our amenities we clear up and remediate, whatever the trigger. If it is an operational spill, we additionally compensate folks and communities.”

The allegations come as a civil trial is predicted to start on Thursday on the Excessive Court docket in London, the place attorneys representing two Ogoniland communities of round 50,000 inhabitants will say Shell should take duty for oil air pollution that occurred between 1989 and 2020, allegedly from its infrastructure.

The communities say the spills have left them with out clear water, unable to farm and fish, and created severe dangers to public well being.

Shell, which has been pushing to promote its property within the West African nation to give attention to offshore drilling and onshore gasoline, has indicated it’s going to defend the claims.

It denies wrongdoing and says spills within the area have been brought on by sabotage, theft and unlawful refining for which the corporate says it isn’t liable.

The BBC has visited the affected areas within the Niger Delta, the place Shell, the most important non-public oil and gasoline firm within the nation, found the existence of crude oil 68 years in the past.

The UN says no less than 13 million barrels – or 1.5 million tonnes – of crude oil have been spilled since 1958 in no less than 7,000 incidents within the Niger Delta area.

The spills have left many households apprehensive for his or her well being and livelihoods.

Grace Audi, 37, lives together with her accomplice and two-year-old in Ogale, the place there have been no less than 40 oil spills from Shell’s infrastructure, in line with Leigh Day, the UK-law agency representing the communities on this case.

Her household and neighbours solely have entry to a contaminated borehole, forcing them to purchase clear water to make use of for ingesting, cooking, washing and, as soon as a day, flushing, at a value of 4,500 Nigerian naira ($3, £2.40) – in an space the place the common each day wage is lower than $8.

It’s a acquainted story to many in Ogoniland.

Paulina Agbekpekpe advised the BBC that lush greenery as soon as surrounded thriving mangroves of her group in Bodo – which isn’t a type of going to court docket on Thursday. She mentioned the rivers and ponds used to brim with all types of animals and fish, significantly periwinkle.

“The place was greener, not solely mangroves, however all by the shoreline – there have been pawpaw bushes, palm bushes and extra. However through the spills, the destruction has polluted in all places,” the 50-year-old mom of six mentioned.

Her household had for generations survived on fishing, till a devastating spill 10 years in the past.

“Many of the youngsters – from the ingesting water – have gotten ailments. Many have died. I’ve misplaced eight youngsters. My husband is sick.

“As a result of our livelihoods have been taken away, folks in Bodo are hungry and struggling.”

In 2011, the UN’s Surroundings Programme (UNEP) revealed a serious examine into the impression of air pollution on the oil-rich space.

It discovered members of 1 group in Ogoniland had been ingesting water contaminated with a recognized carcinogen at ranges greater than 900 occasions above the World Well being Group (WHO) guideline. The identical chemical, benzene, was detected in all their air samples.

It additionally discovered that websites that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Improvement Firm of Nigeria (SPDC), claimed to have remediated, had been nonetheless polluted and the strategies they used didn’t attain regulatory necessities.

The report concluded {that a} complete clean-up of the world would take 25-30 years – and it led to the formation of the Hydrocarbon Air pollution Remediation Mission (Hyprep).

This was initially established by the Nigerian authorities in 2012, however no clean-up was began – till it was relaunched by a brand new authorities in December 2016.

Hyprep was part-funded by oil firms together with the state-owned Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $350m.

Nonetheless, the BBC has seen inside paperwork that recommend representatives of Shell and of the Nigerian authorities had been warned quite a few occasions of the company’s alleged fraudulent practices.

One individual conscious of the venture spoke to the BBC about their issues – and requested to stay nameless out of a worry of reprisals.

“It is common data that basically what we’re doing is a rip-off. Most of it’s to idiot the Ogoni folks,” the whistle-blower mentioned.

“It is a con perpetuated in order that extra money could be put into the pot and find yourself within the pockets of politicians and different folks in energy.”

The allegations about failings at Hyprep embody:

• Contracts being awarded to firms that had no related expertise
• Laboratory outcomes being falsified – typically labelling contaminated soil and water as clear
• Mission prices being inflated
• Exterior auditors now and again being blocked from checking the clean-up on websites had been achieved correctly.

Within the minutes of 1 assembly in 2023, attended by representatives from Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the UNEP and Hyprep, it was identified that “incompetent” contractors had been “being engaged once more” and that they need to “not be allowed to additional degrade the atmosphere”.

In a separate leaked report seen by the BBC from the identical 12 months, it was identified that laboratory outcomes had been “usually reported with deviations”.

In 2022, the UN wrote to the Nigeria’s atmosphere ministry, warning that if nothing modified, the “extraordinarily poor requirements” of the clean-up would proceed.

The BBC has requested Hyprep and the Nigerian authorities to touch upon the allegations however has obtained no response.

However our investigation has revealed proof that Shell was conscious of the issues.

In a gathering with the British excessive commissioner to Nigeria in January final 12 months, minutes of which had been obtained below the Freedom of Data Act, Shell representatives acknowledged the “institutional challenges” of the clean-up company and the possibility of the refusal of “future funding” in the direction of it.

Shell advised the BBC: “Hyprep is an company established and overseen by the federal authorities of Nigeria, with its governing council largely made up of senior ministers and authorities officers, together with 5 representatives of communities and NGOs and a single Shell consultant.”

This isn’t the one remediation venture in Ogoniland that’s alleged to have been botched.

In 2015, Shell agreed to a £55m settlement for a clean-up after two catastrophic spills in 2008 from its infrastructure within the space Bodo.

The corporate mentioned the clean-up, performed by the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI), which is supposed to function a mediator between oil firms, together with Shell, and the Bodo group (and is part-funded by the oil large and Nigerian regulators) has been licensed as 98% full.

Nonetheless, the BBC visited websites throughout the space and located crude oil oozing from the soil and floating on waters.

Shell and the BMI insist any occurrences of oil spills within the area are due to theft – recognized within the business as “oil bunkering”.

“There’s a plan to name again the contractors to wash these areas to specification, to straightforward,” Boniface Dumpe, a director on the BMI, advised the BBC.

“It’s the duty of all stakeholders, Shell, sure, to care for their amenities, to make sure that re-oiling doesn’t come from their amenities.

“However for the areas which were cleaned. I might assume that some duty can be for the group to make sure that some unlawful actions doesn’t additionally trigger re-pollution.”

Shell mentioned it takes lively measures to stop oil spills brought on by oil bunkering.

The corporate mentioned: “We take intensive steps to stop this exercise and the spills it causes together with aerial surveillance, eradicating unlawful connections on pipelines, and by constructing metal cages to guard wellheads.”

The alleged failings within the oil clean-up come as Shell prepares to promote its Nigerian subsidiary, the SPDC, to Renaissance Africa, a consortium of native and worldwide firms.

Some locals in Ogoniland have accused the oil large of “working away” from correctly cleansing up the land and waters it’s alleged to have polluted.

In addition they worry Shell should still revenue from the world by merely buying and selling the oil extracted from the area in future.

“The operations of whichever oil operator takes over the related pipelines may have an unlimited impression on their day-to-day life,” Joe Snape, a lawyer at Leigh Day, advised the BBC.

“There’s extremely little element about what these offers will result in.

“It’s unclear how Renaissance [Africa] will act going ahead. At the least with Shell we have now technique of holding them to account.”

Mineral merchandise, like petroleum oil and gasoline, account for 90% of exports from Nigeria, most of which comes from the Niger Delta area.

Locals, whose foremost supply of livelihood has been agriculture and fishing, advised the BBC that because the discovery of oil, or what some seek advice from as “black gold”, their house had been pumped for revenue – by main oil firms, by oil thieves and by corrupt politicians.

They are saying they’ve seen no profit, solely struggling – like Endurance Ogboe who blames latest oil spills for her failing crops.

“Previously if I harvest I can eat some with my household and even promote some… however for the previous few years I couldn’t get something. It is actually dangerous,” the 42-year-old the BBC.