Shell's Batan delivery line spill, pollution and harassment of the locals, Nigeria

Last update:
2019-05-08

Shell's Batan delivery line spill, pollution and harassment of the locals, Nigeria

Shell's old and unadapted equipment caused Batan's delivery line spill but yet the multinational unethical behavior enabled it to avoid taking any responsibility for it.

Description:

On October 20, 2002, a major oil spill occurred at Shell’s Batan delivery line. This pipeline connects Shell’s Batan facility to the Forcados export terminal. The pipeline is operated by its subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (hereafter SPDC). The communities affected by the spill were numerous, including Batan, Diebiri, Ajuju, Ewerigbene and Kumusi.Diebiri-Batn is a riverine Ijaw community in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State. The local people are predominantly fisherfolks, though some of them also engage in subsistence farming.

Women’s daily life was particularly affected after the spill. The gendered division of labor assigns them the tasks of gathering the oysters and other mollusks from the mangroves, but this fish population was heavily disseminated by the spill [1].

A team, including different stakeholders (police and army officers, representatives of SPDC, and community’s members), led the joint investigation to determine the causes of the spill. Their Joint Investigation Report (hereafter JVR) concluded it was caused by the pipeline’s under water loose bolts and nuts. And yet, already a day after the publication of the JVR, Shell questioned the conclusions of the team and blamed the locals for causing the spill by sabotaging the infrastructures. The company alleged its representatives were forced into signing the report.

A video contradicts the oil multinational. That video shows SPDC representatives trying to dissuade the other team members from writing the cause of the spill in the report [2]. The communities defended themselves, reminding that the infrastructures were old and rusty. Amnesty International recalls that Shell has in several occasions used this strategy, questioning and ignoring the joint investigations’ conclusions, breaking free from its responsibilities, putting people and their environment under high risks because of deficient and inadequately old infrastructures. The NGO Amnesty International linked the attitude of the oil company after the Batan’s spill with a previous case, that of Bodo creek’s spill in August 2008, also refused to accept the conclusions of the JVR [2]. In this latter example, a court case in January 2015declared Shell responsible for the spill and thee multinational had to pay 83 million dollars to Bodo villagers [3]. However, in the case of Batan’s spill from October 2002, the community had no other choice than accepting Shell’s proposition of giving them 100.000 dollars to face the impacts on their daily lives. In return, they had to agree on absolving the multinational from having to acknowledge any responsibility for the spill.

SOURCES

[1] https://www.es.amnesty.org/uploads/media/REPORT_Petroleum__Pollution_and_Poverty_in_the_Niger_Delta.pdf

[2]

https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/OECD-Submission-FoE-and-AI-FINAL-TEXT.pdf

[3]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-shell-timeline/timeline-shells-operations-in-nigeria-idUSKCN1M306D

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Basic Data

Name of conflict:	Shell's Batan delivery line spill, pollution and harassment of the locals, Nigeria
Country:	Nigeria
State or province:	Delta State
Location of conflict:	Warri South-West Local Government Area, Diebiri Batan,
Accuracy of location	LOW (Country level)

Source of Conflict

Type of conflict. 1st level:	Fossil Fuels and Climate Justice/Energy
Type of conflict. 2nd level:	Oil and gas exploration and extraction Pollution related to transport (spills, dust, emissions) Oil and gas refining
Specific commodities:	Crude oil

Project Details and Actors

Project details	The Royal Dutch Shell is one of the oil multinationals with major presence in the Niger Delta. It operates in the country through its subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). The Batan delivery line supplies Shell's Forcados terminal, one of the biggest oil export terminals of the country. The terminal has the capacity to export around 400.000 barrels per day [4].
Project area:	unknown
Level of Investment:	Unknown
Type of population	Semi-urban
Affected Population:	unknown
Start of the conflict:	10/2002
Company names or state enterprises:	Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) from Netherlands Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) from Nigeria
Relevant government actors:	Department of Petroleum Resources, the Delta State Environment Protection Agency, Federal Ministry of Environmen, the police, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency
Environmental justice organizations (and other supporters) and their websites, if available:	Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria), Amnesty International, local organization: Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility (CSCR)

Conflict & Mobilization

Intensity	Unknown
Reaction stage	Mobilization for reparations once impacts have been felt
Groups mobilizing:	Farmers Local ejos Women Fisher people
Forms of mobilization:	Creation of alternative reports/knowledge Involvement of national and international NGOs Public campaigns Threats to use arms

Impacts

Environmental Impacts	Visible: Biodiversity loss (wildlife, agro-diversity), Food insecurity (crop damage), Loss of landscape/aesthetic degradation, Oil spills, Surface water pollution / Decreasing water (physico-chemical, biological) quality Potential: Groundwater pollution or depletion
Health Impacts	Visible: Exposure to unknown or uncertain complex risks (radiation, etc…) Potential: Mental problems including stress, depression and suicide
Socio-economical Impacts	Visible: Lack of work security, labour absenteeism, firings, unemployment, Loss of livelihood, Loss of traditional knowledge/practices/cultures, Specific impacts on women, Violations of human rights Potential: Increase in Corruption/Co-optation of different actors, Displacement, Increase in violence and crime, Land dispossession, Loss of landscape/sense of place

Outcome

Project Status	In operation
Conflict outcome / response:	Compensation
Development of alternatives:	Amnesty International calls Shell to be more transparent about its cleaning-up operations. The Nigerian law should be better applied. It requires that the companies always clean-up after a spill, and no matter what the cause of the spill is. Amnesty International considers that the Nigerian institution National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, should be given more means to carry on its very necessary work.
Do you consider this an environmental justice success? Was environmental justice served?:	No
Briefly explain:	The villagers had to accept the small amount of 100.000 dollars and Shell did not even carry on a proper clean-up of the contaminated areas.

Sources & Materials

References to published books, academic articles, movies or published documentaries

[2] Complaint to the UK and Dutch National Contact Points under the Specific Instance Procedure of the, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 25 January 2011, by Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth International
[click to view]

Tukur Ismaila Gusau, Oil Corporations and the Environment: the case of the Niger Delta, Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Leicester, August 2012
[click to view]

Niger Delta: Shell’s manifestly false claims about oil pollution exposed, again, Amnesty International, November 2015
[click to view]

Bad information, oil spill investigations in the Niger Delta, Amnesty International
[click to view]

[1] Nigeria: Petroleum, pollution and poverty in the Niger Delta, Amnesty International, 2009
[click to view]

Links to general newspaper articles, blogs or other websites

Nigeria: Oil spill affects five communities, October 2002
[click to view]

Shell’s Nigeria ecocide is creating a refugee crisis, October 2016
[click to view]

Eco-Crimes: Shell and the Niger Delta, Fair Planet Dossier
[click to view]

Shell: #Makethefuture - Clean up the Niger Delta, Amnesty International Campaign
[click to view]

[3] Timeline: Shell's operations in Nigeria, September 2018
[click to view]

[4] Bombed pipeline to hit Nigeria oil output, March 2016
[click to view]

Contributor:	Afoke Ohwojeheri & Camila Rolando Mazzuca (EnvJustice team)
Last update	08/05/2019