The Royal Dutch Shell, the parent group for Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, of Nigeria, on Friday described as “exaggerated claims”, demands by Bodo Community in Rivers for a Shell oil spill that caused extensive damage to the environment.
The SPDC then offered to pay about £30 million (N81 billion) as compensation for the 2008 oil spills, as opposed to the over £300 million the complainants demanded for.
Shell said its offer is more sensible.
The offer followed the ruling of a London court rejecting a larger claim.
The Bodo community in Rivers State had accused the SPDC of being responsible for the massive spill incident that involved about 500,000 barrels of crude oil that wreaked extensive damage to the environment.
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After the SPDC failed to heed several appeals for payment of compensation to the affected oil-rich Niger Delta community, about 11,000 residents dragged the multinational oil company before a London court.
The London High Court on Friday rejected the community’s attempt, through the law firm of Leigh Day, to expand the scope of the compensation, to cover damage to the pipeline system in the area.
The court had argued that SPDC, the pipeline system operator, could not be held responsible for the damage caused by vandals behind the oil theft.
The trial is scheduled to commence on May 2015 in Nigeria, though Shell has already urged the community to consider its proposal of £30 million as an out-of-court settlement before the scheduled date.
“From the outset, we’ve accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo community,” the Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, SPDC, Mutiu Sunmonu, said in a statement.
“We hope the community will now direct their UK legal representatives to stop wasting even more time pursuing enormously exaggerated claims and consider sensible and fair compensation offers,” Mr. Sunmonu said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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