REUTERS

Shell says its Nigeria asset sale not affected by court ruling

ABUJA, June 21 (Reuters) – Shell Plc (SHEL.L) has said its planned sale of onshore assets in Nigeria will go ahead and was not affected by a Supreme Court ruling in a case in which a Niger Delta community is seeking compensation for a 2019 oil spill.

Bamidele Odugbesan, spokesman for Shell in Nigeria, said the June 16 Supreme Court ruling was in response to an appeal launched by Shell against a contempt ruling linked to the dispute with the Niger Delta community.

The lawyer for the community said the ruling, which was made public on Monday, barred Shell from disposing its assets as ordered by a lower court in March.

“The Supreme Court ruling on 16 June was with respect to the contempt proceedings and not related to (the) onshore portfolio review,” Odugbesan said.

Shell has invited bids for its onshore assets. Odugbesan did not say how many bids had been received.

Eighty-eight communities in Rivers state were awarded $1.95 billion compensation for an oil spill they blamed on Shell and which damaged their farms and waterways. Shell denies causing the spill. read more read more

REUTERS

JPMorgan wins London oil trial in which Nigeria sought $1.7 bln

By Sinead Cruise and Estelle Shirbon: June 14, 2022

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has won a London High Court battle against Nigeria, which was seeking $1.7 billion in damages over the U.S. bank’s role in a disputed 2011 oilfield deal.

JPMorgan said the judgment reflected its commitment to acting with high professional standards everywhere it operates, while Nigeria said it was disappointed and would review the judgment carefully before considering its next steps. read more

AP NEWS

South Africa court to rule on Shell offshore oil exploration

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME: June 2022

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African court is to rule on efforts to stop British oil giant Shell from conducting any further seismic surveys in the country’s Indian Ocean waters to explore for offshore oil and gas deposits.

Environmental and community groups in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province won an urgent interdict to stop the surveys in December last year and are now asking the court to permanently halt the operations. read more

DAILY MAVERICK

Judgment reserved in case against Shell’s seismic survey along the Wild Coast

By Tembile Sgqolana: 31 May 2022

The second day of the three-day court case between Shell, Impact Africa and environmental activists kicked off at the Gqeberha High Court on Tuesday following arguments from advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC and advocate Nick Ferreira on Monday.

The judges adjourned the matter, reserving judgment in both granting the joinder application put forward by Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa (represented by the environmental law firm Cullinan & Associates) and the declarator that Shell required an environmental authorisation under the National Environmental Management Act (Nema), and if their exploration rights had been lawfully awarded by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

On Monday, Judge President Selby Mbenenge, Deputy Judge President Zamani Nhlangulela and Judge Thandi Norman heard the merits of the joinder application.

On Tuesday, Jeremy Gauntlett SC, representing Impact Africa, argued against the joinder application sought by Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa, saying the two organisations added nothing new to the case and had decided to attach themselves like a “cuckoo in a nest”.

During the second day, Gauntlett argued that the applicants were using a legal “knobkerrie” via interdict to undermine Minister Gwede Mantashe’s  authority to decide the matter, laying blame on imperfect legislation rather than the decision-maker. read more

The Guardian

The village that stood up to big oil – and won

The fossil fuel industry faces a reckoning in the Niger Delta after a disaster left families ‘eating, drinking, breathing the oil’

Wednesday 1 June 2022

Today, the oil industry in Nigeria faces a reckoning with Shell at the helm. According to Amnesty International, the oil company has come under “unprecedented legal scrutiny” in recent years for its negligent and criminal practices in the Niger Delta. Several lawsuits are ongoing while others have culminated in courts ordering Shell to pay plaintiffs billions of dollars in damages. The mounting pressure has Shell considering a rapid departure from the region’s oil market. In early August 2021, the company announced it would sell off all remaining onshore oilfields in Nigeria, citing challenges with community unrest, sabotage and a company-wide refocus on promoting green energy. But locals and lawyers see the move as Shell ducking its responsibility to clean up after itself. A court in March barred Shell from selling any more assets in Nigeria while the company appeals against a ruling in which it was found liable for a 2019 oil spill and ordered to pay affected communities nearly $2bn in damages. read more

Bloomberg News

Shell Court Case Prompts Climate Protest in Cape Town

Bloomberg News: Paul Burkhardt: May 28, 2022

Protesters rallied in Cape Town on Saturday ahead of a court ruling on oil and gas exploration by Shell Plc.

Community groups in December won a temporary halt to the company’s seismic survey off South Africa, pending a decision on whether further environmental authorization is needed for the work to proceed. The case will reopen on Monday.

Demonstrators held signs that showed the Shell logo and read “stop all seismic blasting,” activity that they argue will harm local marine life and disrupt fishing, while the company maintains the practice has been well established and in line with industry standards. read more

CNN

Shell escaped liability for oil spills in Nigeria for years. Then four farmers took them to court — and won

By Nimi Princewill and Krystina Shveda, CNN: Updated 1540 GMT (2340 HKT) May 25, 2022

Nigeria (CNN)When Nigerian environmental lawyer Chima Williams launched a lawsuit against oil giant Shell plc, he did not envisage a 13-year battle that would lead to a landmark ruling and land him a prestigious environmental award.

Williams, who is the executive director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, successfully convinced the Court of Appeal in the Hague that Shell plc was responsible for the activities of its subsidiary in Nigeria — Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) — and for oil spills that ravaged local farmlands.

The suit against Shell Nigeria was brought by four farmers from the Goi and Oruma communities in the country’s oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta region, who said their farms were left in ruins after major spills from underground pipelines.

The decision to allow Shell plc, formerly known as Royal Dutch Shell plc, to be sued in this jurisdiction set a precedent as it was the first time the Dutch parent company was sued in its home country for the actions of its foreign subsidiary, SPDC.

Environmental lawyer Chima Williams is the 2022 Africa Goldman Prize winner for his efforts in holding oil giant Shell accountable for oil spills.

Shell Nigeria (SPDC) was eventually held liable for the oil spills and ordered to pay damages to the farmers in a January 29, 2021, ruling by the Court of Appeal of the Hague. SPDC was also ordered to carry out an intensive clean-up of the damage to the communities.

Williams was on Wednesday awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in holding the company accountable for the environmental damage. read more

Reuters

Shell 2021 oil spills in Nigeria double in volume

April 5, 2022 11:54 AM 

LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) – Shell (SHEL.L) said on Tuesday the volume of crude oil spills caused by sabotage in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta more than doubled to 3,300 tonnes last year, a level last seen in 2016.

While the volume of spills rose, the number of major spills fell to 106 in 2021 from 122 incidents the previous year, Shell said in its sustainability report.

It said in 2020, oil spills in Nigeria stood at 1,500 tonnes. read more

Nigeria: Dutch court rejects suit of ‘Ogoni Nine’ widows against Shell

The court said there was insufficient evidence to support claims of the families of the activists executed alongside the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

23 March 2022

A Dutch court has thrown out a suit against Shell brought by four widows of activists who were executed by late Nigerian military leader Sani Abacha in 1995 after protests against the company’s exploitation of the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The court said there was not enough evidence to support the widows’ claim that Shell had been involved in bribing witnesses related to the case.

In 2019, the court had handed the widows a rare win in their long-running battle by allowing the case to continue. But it had also said the claimants needed to prove Shell’s liability.

Shell has always denied wrongdoing.

Esther Kiobel, whose husband Barinem Kiobel was among those executed, said she would file an appeal at The Hague.

“We can’t do it in Nigeria because they [the government] are the collaborators,” she said. “I want their [activists] names exonerated. That’s what I want and that’s what I’m fighting for.” read more

English translation of extracts from a Forbes article published in German on 1st March 2022. 

FORBES

CAN SHELL GREEN?

In the public perception, Shell is an industrial giant – now Fabian Ziegler, Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Shell Holding GmbH since spring 2020, wants to make the company greener.

Will the Swiss succeed in pulling off the coup so vital to the group’s survival?

Text: Matthias Lauerer
Photo: Deutsche Shell Holding GmbH

1st March 2022

Is Shell on its way to a carbon-neutral future? Will this be a reimagined world, where green hydrogen, e-mobility and decarbonization have become a reality? Or do they prefer to greenwash to perpetuate the dirty old business model on which the global economy hangs? read more

The Telegraph

JP Morgan accused of negligence over corrupt $1.3bn Nigerian oil deal

By Mark Hollingsworth: 20 February 2022 

The case revolves around $876m of missing money from an oil field sale in 2011

JP Morgan negligently allowed corrupt Nigerian officials to siphon off more than three quarters of a $1.3bn oil investment to a former oil minister’s company and assorted middlemen, the High Court will hear this week.

The world’s largest bank is being sued by the Nigerian state for allegedly allowing corrupt former state officials to extract $875m between 2011 and 2013 from a government account opened with JP Morgan in London. read more

S&P Global

PLATTS

Shell discovers light oil offshore Namibia, in first for southern African country

• AuthorEklavya Gupte 
• EditorBill Montgomery 
• 04 Feb 2022 | 11:55 UTC

Energy major Shell has confirmed a light oil discovery at the Graff-1 well offshore Namibia, marking the first oil find for the southern African country, a company spokesperson said Feb. 4.

“Results from our exploration well are encouraging, establishing the presence of a working petroleum system with light oil,” the Shell spokesperson told S&P Global Platts. “We’ll continue evaluating the data and conduct further exploration activity to determine the extent of the system and how much of the hydrocarbons can be recovered.” FULL ARTICLE

REUTERS

EXCLUSIVE Shell hits oil and gas in Namibian offshore well

By Ron Bousso and Wendell Roelf: January 25, 202210:42 AM GMT

Shell made “significant” discovery in Graff-1 well

Namibian government to hold press conference on discovery

It remains unclear if Shell will develop a field

read more

allAfrica.com

Nigeria: Bonga Oil Spill Victims Urge Shell to Pay $3.4bn NOSDRA Fine

Leadership (Abuja)

By Anayo Onukwugha: 24 Jan 2022

Victims of the 2011 Bonga oil spill have demanded that Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) should immediately pay the sum of $3.4billion fines and awards to them as imposed by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).

“We demand on behalf of all the victims of the Shell (SNEPCO) Bonga Oil Spill which is rated globally as one of the most devastating, that Shell pay immediately the fines/awards of $3.4billion imposed on it by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) which fines/awards were upheld both by the National Assembly through the House Committee on Environment and a competent court of the land -the Federal High Court in Lagos. read more

Shell’s carbon capture project emits more GHG than it sequesters

By Theresa Smith: Jan 21, 2022

NGO Global Witness reports that Shell’s Quest carbon capture project in Canada is pushing more greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere than it is capturing.

One of the few fossil hydrogen plants in the world to use a carbon capture system, Quest is a carbon capture and storage project at a hydrogen plant run by Shell on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project. It opened in 2015 and according to Shell’s website has captured and stored more than five million tonnes of CO2. read more

BNN Bloomberg

Shell Appeals $2 Billion Judgment in Nigeria Pollution Case

William Clowes, Bloomberg News: 20 Jan 2022

(Bloomberg) — A Nigerian court will hear Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s appeal to overturn an almost $2 billion award against the company for allegedly spilling oil in the West African country.

The energy giant is challenging a November 2020 judgment in favor of community members claiming a leak from a company pipeline damaged their land and waterways. A federal court of appeal in the city of Owerri is scheduled to consider applications from both sides on Jan. 25, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. read more