As the Royal Dutch oil multinational, Shell plans to exit Nigeria through the sale of both its stake in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC JV) and its operating subsidiary, Amnesty International has advised the incoming administration in Nigeria, to ensure that the move does not lead to a further deterioration in human rights in the Niger Delta, a region blighted by decades of oil pollution. The divestment deal.
In the past decade, the SPDC JV has sold much of its business in Nigeria, including oilfields, to several much smaller Nigerian-owned companies. The company is planning yet another deal involving its staff, facilities and infrastructure. This includes 263 producing oil wells, 56 producing gas wells and a network of 3,173km of pipelines.
However, Amnesty International said it had documented grievous and enduring human rights abuses resulting from oil contamination in the Niger Delta region, where Shell has operated since the 1950s. The global human rights organisation expressed concern that the proposed sale will deny people already harmed access to adequate remedy, and potentially expose many more to future abuses.
In a new report titled: Tainted Sale?, which Amnesty international released yesterday, it recommended a series of safeguards and actions to help protect the rights of people potentially affected by Shell’s planned disposal of its onshore oil interests in the Niger Delta, reportedly for about US$3 billion.
Amnesty International’s Head of Business and Human Rights, Mark Dummett, said that for decades spills have damaged the health and livelihoods of many communities in the Niger Delta and should not be allowed to wash its hands off the problems and leave.
“Shell has earned billions of dollars from this business and it must make sure that its withdrawal does not have negative human rights and environmental consequences.
“By exercising appropriate oversight of Shell’s sale, Nigeria’s incoming administration has a unique opportunity to demonstrate its determination to uphold and protect the human rights of its citizens, including their rights to an adequate standard of living, clean water, and health. We are also calling for effective remedy for people whose rights have long been abused.
“We urge the new government, under President Bola Tinubu, to ensure Shell’s sale does not end or limit the company’s liabilities. As a condition of sale, it should require Shell to provide a full assessment of all existing pollution in the delta, ensure it has provided satisfactory remediation for any damage, and that local inhabitants’ concerns about the sale process are fully appraised and addressed.
“The government should consider requiring Shell to act as a guarantor to ensure any purchaser is capable of making good and remediating damage caused by any future spills and that any buyer is committed to transparency, environmental compliance, consultations with communities, and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
“Of course, rather than finding buyers and wringing the last drops of oil from a region so long blighted by the industry, the better option would be remedying the harms caused, and phasing out production.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts that without accelerating the phasing out of fossil fuels worldwide, global temperatures will rise by more than an agreed limit of 1.5C versus pre-industrial levels. After decades of exploitation, retiring production in the Niger Delta would be a step in the right direction,” he said.
Amnesty International claims that for more than two decades, it had, along with partner organizations, conducted research which demonstrated that Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta have come at the cost of the human rights of people living there.
According to the research, hundreds of spills occur every year from poorly maintained pipelines and wells, along with inadequate clean-up practices. These, the report said, have led to widespread oil contamination, including of groundwater and drinking water sources, agricultural land and fisheries, and damaged the health and livelihoods of many inhabitants.
The impact of the pollution can be devastating. In 2019, an academic study, found that oil spills occurring within 10km of a mother’s place of residence in the Niger Delta doubled neonatal mortality rates and impaired the health of surviving children.
“Shell must take its own steps to ensure effective remedy for people whose human rights have been impaired by this devastating pollution, and that its divestment plan does not worsen the plight of the Niger Delta’s inhabitants.
“International standards, under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, are clear that Shell has a responsibility to conduct a human rights due diligence process on its decision to transfer assets. This responsibility is independent of any steps Nigeria’s government will take,” Dummett said.
