The Hague Civil Court on Wednesday rejected a suit against Royal Dutch Shell brought by a group of Nigerian farmers over an oil leak, saying that only local subsidiary Shell Nigeria was responsible and ordering the latter to compensate one farmer.
By News Wires (text)


A Dutch court on Wednesday rejected a bid by a group of Nigerian farmers to have Shell's parent company held responsible for oil damage, saying only subsidiary Shell Nigeria was responsible for one oil leak.

The court "dismissed all claims against the parent companies... since pursuant to Nigerian law a parent company in principle is not obliged to prevent its subsidiaries from harming third parties abroad," judge Henk Wien told the court.

Environmental groups had hoped that a ruling against Anglo-Dutch Shell, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, could set a precedent for global responsibility and open the door for hundreds of similar claims.

Judge Wien said however that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary must pay damages to the farmers and fishermen in one of their claims, relating to oil spills near the Niger Delta village of Ikot Ada Udo.

"Shell Nigeria has been sentenced to pay damages in one of the cases. All claims in the other four proceedings have been dismissed," Wien said.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130130-hague-court-rejects-nigerian-suit-royal-dutch-shell-oil

abegi make we hear word...make shell kuku commot for Nigeria and then u guys can bunker and sell the oils to Chinese and Russians or better still drill it out urself amfrigging tired of these "militants"who when get hungry start disturbing Shell.Real Layabout,these people

make we hear word. we talk a lot we nigerians

Sure they must pay after Nigerians keep vandalizing the distribution pipelines to cook in crude refineries and kill themselves.

I've frankly become disillusioned about the Nigerians that are supposedly going to be helped by the judgement.

I weep for my dear nation. Oil spillage in the Niger Delta and ecological effects.

In a sane society, the government would take Shell to court for causing somuch havoc. But what do we have here, individuals backed with NGOs are doing the job of the government.

BP is to pay a whopping $4bn to the US for the same spillage while our own government is reluctant in taking drastic action against these oil coys. One would have thought because the President is from Niger Delta, he would fight for his people...yet the same ol' sh-it goes on.

Its sad. Really sad. Cos these coys would still ride roughshod over the Niger Delta locals. Sad news, I must say.

I hope they appeal the courts decision because this judgement is supposed to set the tone for various spillages across Africa where these oil coys deprive indigenes of their means of survival.



Frawzey

Two lessons:

1) Don't vote for someone just because he/she is from ur village/tribe. You'd be disappointed if he doesn't influence living conditions in your village/tribe. In short, don't vote based on tribalism. Vote for competence!

2) Nigeria's judicial system is already dead. This case has been filed at The Hague since 2008, yet Friends of the Earth and these farmers prefer to have the verdict of an international court over the Nigerian court. Why? Simply because the nigerian judicial system is a news house that publishes corrupt verdicts. There was a time courthouses were the last hope of the common man. Not anymore. Thank God a farmer got justice out of them, atleast. In nigeria, your guess is as good as mine.

Honestly this nation needs revolutionary cleansing.


Frawzey

More than 95% of these spills are caused by illegal bunkering by thieves in these regions.

Nigerian law prevents the parent company from being sued....so why not change the law? Why Shouldn't the parent be held responsible like in developed countries?And for those blaming the ones who pifer the oil from the pipelines... Like in developed countries...it is the responsibiliy of the company to protect the pipeline ....they do in other countries using modern technology so why not in Nigeria? BP is to pay the US govt US$4 billion in fines...then face lawsuits from residents that were affected which would cost BP tens of billions....and yet ...they had to clean up the oil spill.Why is Nigeria different?...all about the laws and greed of a few at the expense and detriment of many.

[quote author=ehie]abegi make we hear word...make shell kuku commot for Nigeria and then u guys can bunker and sell the oils to Chinese and Russians or better still drill it out urself amfrigging tired of these "militants"who when get hungry start disturbing Shell.Real Layabout,these people[/quote

Wetin u dey try to xplain o boy,u sure say u dey normal.okooko

There is a general misconception of how the oil industry is run in Nigeria. The oil companies operating in Nigeria are not the same legal entities as the international oil companies. They are Joint Ventures companies or Special Purpose Vehicles set up to do business in Nigeria. For example, Shell Petroleum Development Company is a Nigerian company that is 55% owned by the Government of Nigeria, 30% by Royal Dutch Shell, 5% by AGIP and 10% by EPNL. It is NOT the same legal entity as Royal Dutch Shell. So I fail to see how suing one of the minority partners in foreign courts will bring about reform when it is not in the interest of the Nigerian state / majority shareholder to hold itself accountable and penalized.

We can also see that there is a major conflict of interest on the part of the Nigerian government. How can the government hold a company on which it is the majority shareholder accountable for any infractions? Ditto for Chevron Nigeria Limited which is a Nigerian company 60% owned by the Government of Nigeria. Can people not see that the interests of the Nigerian government is the same as that of the minority JV partners who happen to be the IOCs. How can the government act as neutral arbiter in this scenario? It CANNOT.

BP can be held accountable by the US government because the US government has no connections to BP and BP is not the single largest contributor to the US government's annual budget as SPDC in Nigeria happens to be by virtue of its status as the largest exporter of oil in the country. There have been times when the FG will prevent SPDC from shutting down oil production for repair purposes on vandalized crude oil pipelines because of the sharp impact it will have on the nations's budget and finances.

As for the Oil spills, at least 95% of it is caused by vandalization of crude pipelines by Niger Delta militants, powerful criminal syndicates, illegal oil refiners that destroy / hot tap pipelines to steal oil and this has caused untold and devastating damage to the environment. Take a trip to the creeks of the Niger Delta and all you would see are big fires by people crudely refining stolen crude with no regard for the environment, health and safety. I fail to see how a company will willfully destroy its own infrastructure built with billions of dollars. I fail to see how a company will deliberately spill millions of gallons of crude oil that will result in billions in losses. Accidents do happen but they are few and far between. Crude oil spills in Nigeria are mostly not due to accidents.

As long as Nigeria is dependent on the vital revenues generated by the oil companies, the government is handicapped. It cannot bite the hands that feed it. Look at the issue of gas flaring. Gas flaring would have ended eons ago if the majority partner has put up its share of the money needed to build gas gathering and processing infrastructure required to end gas flaring in Nigeria. The cost is at least 13 billion dollars which the government says it does not have after considering competing needs. How then can the same government hold the oil companies accountable for gas flaring when it has consistently balked at putting up its required investment equity needed to end gas faring in the country?

So we can see that there will be no change in the way things are being run as it is really not in the interests of the government to enact reform. That is why the PIB may never be passed in our lifetimes.

@kalokalo....I guess you answered my questions very well and sum it up in that the government will not bite the hand that feeds it. So on point.

Lol why couldn't this be decided in a Nigerian court? Any other country would have had jursisdiction over a spill in their own territory.

but oh right...... we are niggers

jmoore: More than 95% of these spills are caused by illegal bunkering by thieves in these regions.

where is your evidence? It is not enough to rush to conclusion out of hatred for the region. What about the ogoni case and the unep report? Militancy started just yesterday before then shell has been polluting the environment.

barikay: where is your evidence? It is not enough to rush to conclusion out of hatred for the region. What about the ogoni case and the unep report? Militancy started just yesterday before then shell has been polluting the environment.

Oil bunkering has been on for well over a decade now...also theft of oil bearing flowlines.

You people will buy stolen condensate and oil and will still turn around to blame IOCs for all the pollution in the ND.

This people are setting a bad precedence. Why sue a Nigerian based company in a foreign court. Of what use is that. Sue the company in Nigeria, if you are serious. Best still, send them all parking. Africa is not a mine field.