Oil major Shell will have to pay a Nigerian community 45.9 billion nairas ($111.68 million) to settle a case over a devastating oil spill that took place more than 50 years ago, a spokesman said on Wednesday 11th August. The company will pay the Ejama-Ebubu community in Nigeria’s Ogoniland the ‘full and final settlement’ to end the case over a spill during the 1967-70 Biafran war.
Nigeria’s Supreme Court in November 2020 denied Shell’s bid to challenge a 2010 award of 17 billion nairas ($41.36 million), that with accruing interest, the community had said was worth more than 180 billion nairas.
The Oil Corporation said it never got a chance to defend itself against the substance of the claims, and early this year, it initiated international arbitration against Nigeria over the case. In a statement, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited said it maintained that third parties caused the spills during the war and that it had fully remediated the sites in the Ebubu community.
