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Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The “Royal Dutch/Shell Group,” commonly know as Shell, is an amalgam of over 1,700 companies all over the world. 60% of the Group is owned by Royal Dutch of the Netherlands, and 40% is owned by the Shell Transport and Trading Group of Great Britain. These two companies have worked together since 1903. Shell includes companies like Shell Petroleum of the USA (which wholly owns Shell Oil of the USA and many subsidiaries), Shell Nigeria, Shell Argentina, Shell South Africa, etc.
Shell Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. 80% of the oil extraction in Nigeria is the the Niger Delta, the southeast region of the country. The Delta is home to many small minority ethnic groups, including the Ogoni, all of which suffer egregious exploitation by multinational oil companies, like Shell. Shell provides over 50% of the income keeping the Nigerian dictatorship in power.
Aside from letters, the only way to reach the powers of Shell Nigeria is through other Shell companies like Shell Oil of the USA.When Shell Oil feels the impact of a boycott and understands that our grievances lie with Shell Nigeria, it puts pressure on the Shell Group to influence change in Nigeria.
Why boycott Shell?!
Since the Nigerian government hanged 9 environmental activists in 1995 for speaking out against exploitation by Royal Dutch/Shell and the Nigeria government, outrage has exploded worldwide. The tribunal which convicted the men was part of a joint effort by the government and Shell to suppress a growing movement among the Ogoni people: a movement for environmental justice, for recognition of their human rights and for economic justice. Shell has brought extreme, irreparable environmental devastation to Ogoniland. Please note that although the case of the Ogoni is the best known of communities in Shell’s areas of operation, dozens of other groups suffer the same exploitation of resources and injustices.
The Problem
“The most conspicuous aspects of life in contemporary Ogoni are poverty, malnutrition, and disease.” -Ben Naanen, Oil and Socioeconomic Crisis in Nigeria, 1995, pg. 75-6
Although oil from Ogoniland has provided approximately $30 billion to the economy of Nigeria1, the people of Ogoni see little to nothing from their contribution to Shell’s pocketbook. Emanuel Nnadozie, writing of the contributions of oil to the national economy of Nigeria, observed “Oil is a curse which means only poverty, hunger, disease and exploitation” for those living in oil producing areas2. Shell has done next to nothing to help Ogoni: by 1996, Shell employed only 88 Ogoni (0.0002% of the Ogoni population, and only 2% of Shell’s employees in Nigeria)3. Ogoni villages have no clean water, little electricity, few telephones, abysmal health care, and no jobs for displaced farmers and fisher persons, and adding insult to injury, face the effects of unrestrained environmental molestation by Shell everyday.
Environmental Degradation
When crude oil touches the leaf of a yam or cassava, or whatever economic trees we have, it dries immediately, it’s so dangerous and somebody who was coming from, say, Shell was arguing with me so I told him that you’re an engineer, you have been trained, you went to the university, I did not go to the university, but I know that what you have been saying in the university sleeps with me here so you cannot be more qualified in crude oil than myself who sleeps with crude oil. -Chief GNK Gininwa of Korokoro, “The Drilling Fields”, Glenn Ellis (Director), 1994
Since Shell began drilling oil in Ogoniland in 1958, the people of Ogoniland have had pipelines built across their farmlands and in front of their homes, suffered endemic oil leaks from these very pipelines, been forced to live with the constant flaring of gas. This environmental assault has smothered land with oil, killed masses of fish and other aquatic life, and introduced devastating acid rain to the land of the Ogoni4. For the Ogoni, a people dependent upon farming and fishing, the poisoning of the land and water has had devastating economic and health consequences5. Shell claims to clean up its oil spills, but such “clean-ups” consist of techniques like burning the crude which results in a permanent layer of crusted oil meters thick and scooping oil into holes dug in surrounding earth (a temporary solution at best, with the oil flowing out of the hole during the Niger Delta’s frequent bouts of rain) 6.
Natural Gas Flaring Ken Saro-Wiwa called gas flaring “the most notorious action” of the Shell and Chevron oil companies7. In Ogoniland, 95% of extracted natural gas is flared8 (compared with 0.6% in the United States). It is estimated that the between the CO2 and methane released by gas flaring, Nigerian oil fields are responsible for more global warming effects than the combined oil fields of the rest of the world9.
Oil Spills Although Shell drills oil in 28 countries, 40% of its oil spills worldwide have occurred in the Niger Delta10. In the Niger Delta, there were 2,976 oil spills between 1976 and 199111. In the 1970s spillage totaled more that four times that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez tragedy12. Ogoniland has had severe problems stemming from oil spillage, including water contamination and loss of many valuable animals and plants. A short-lived World Bank investigation found levels of hydrocarbon pollution in water in Ogoniland more than sixty times US limits13 and a 1997 Project Underground survey found petroleum hydrocarbons one Ogoni village’s watersource to be 360 times the levels allowed in the European Community, where Shell originates14.
Pipelines and construction The 12 by 14 mile area that comprises Ogoniland is some of the most densely occupied land in Africa. The extraction of oil has lead to construction of pipelines and facilities on precious farmland and through villages. Shell and its subcontractors compensate landowners with meager amounts unequal to the value of the scarce land, when they pay at all. The military defends Shell’s actions with firearms and death: see the Shell Police section below.
Health impacts The Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team observed increased “discomfort and misery” due to fumes, heat and combustion gases, as well as increased illnesses15. This destruction has not been alleviated by Shell or the government. Owens Wiwa, a physician, has observed higher rates of certain diseases like bronchial asthma, other respiratory diseases, gastro-enteritis and cancer among the people in the area as a result of the oil industry16.
The Shell Police and the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force
Both Shell and the government admit that Shell contributes to the funding of the military in the Delta region. Under the auspices of “protecting” Shell from peaceful demonstrators in the village of Umeuchem (10 miles from Ogoni), the police killed 80 people, destroyed houses and vital crops in 199017. Shell conceded it twice paid the military for going to specific villages. Although it disputes that the purpose of these excursions was to quiet dissent, each of the military missions paid for by Shell resulted in Ogoni fatalities18. The two incidents are a 1993 peaceful demonstration against the destruction of farmland to build pipelines and, later that year, a demonstration in the village of Korokoro19. Shell has also admitted purchasing weapons for the police force who guard its facilities, and there is growing suspicion that Shell funds a much greater portion of the military than previously admitted. In 1994, the military sent permanent security forces into Ogoniland, occupying the once peaceful land. This Rivers State Internal Security Task Force is suspected in the murders of 2000 people20. In a classified memo, its leader described his plans for “psychological tactics of displacement/wasting” and stated that “Shell operations are still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken.”21 Since the Task Force occupied Ogoniland in 1994, the Ogoni have lived under constant surveillance and threats of violence. The Nigerian military stepped up its presence in Ogoniland in January of 1997 and again in 1998 before the annual Ogoni Day celebrations.
The trial and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8: The Struggle continues…
Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8 were leaders of MOSOP, the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People. As outspoken environmental and human rights activists, they declared that Shell was not welcome in Ogoniland. On November 10, 1995, they were hanged after a trial by a special military tribunal (whose decisions cannot be appealed) in the murder of four other Ogoni activists. The defendants’ lawyers were harassed and denied access to their clients. Although none of them were near the town where the murders occurred, they were convicted and sentenced to death in a trial that many heads of state (including US President Clinton) strongly condemned for a stunning lack of evidence, unmasked partiality towards the prosecution and the haste of the trial. The executions were carried out a mere eight days after the decision. Two witnesses against the MOSOP leaders admitted that Shell and the military bribed them to testify against Ken Saro-Wiwa with promises of money and jobs at Shell20. Ken’s final words before his execution were: “The struggle continues!“
The Ogoni 20 and others…
On September 7, 1998, the Ogoni 20 were released on bail! The 20 had been imprisoned for the past four years under the same unsubstantiated charges as those used to execute Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8. It is unclear whether they will be tried. Sadly, another 25 people were arrested in January, 1998 for organizing the annual peaceful Ogoni Day celebration. There are unknown other Ogonis imprisoned because they appeared to support the Ogoni cause or for helping others remember Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Not just the Ogoni
The majority of Nigeria’s oil comes from the Niger Delta in Southeast Nigeria. All across the Niger Delta, ethnic minority communities suffer the same environmental devastation and oppression under multinational oil companies and the Nigerian military. In 1990, Shell specifically requested that the military protect its facilities from nonviolent protesters in the village of Umeuchem. 80 villagers were killed in two days of violence. A later judiciary panel determined that the villagers posed no threat against Shell21. There have also been accusations of the military arming some communities to fight other communities and prevent the growth of cohesive groups like MOSOP, because wide-spread movements could lead to the end of the flagrant prosperity for Shell and the military. However, communities like the Ijaw, Ekwerre, Oyigba, Ogbia, and others in the Niger Delta have taken measures to reclaim their despoiled lands and human rights22. Since October 1998, Ijaw groups have been occupying oil industry platforms and pipeline transfer stations, at one point blocking a third of Nigeria’s oil exports. As of early December, 1988, the groups were still shutting off flow and demanding environmental and economic justice.
Why does the Nigerian government allow this to happen?
In Nigeria, it is questionable whether it is multinational oil companies like Shell or the military which hold ultimate control. Oil companies have a frightening amount of influence upon the government: 80% of Nigerian government revenues come directly from oil, over half of which is from Shell. Countless sums disappear into the pockets of military strongmen in the form of bribes and theft. In 1991 alone, $12 billion in oil funds disappeared (and have yet to be located)23. Local governments admit that oil companies bribe influential local officials to suppress action against the companies. Hence the interests of the Nigerian military regime are clear: to maintain the status quo; to continue acting on Shell’s requested attacks on villagers whose farms are destroyed by the oil company; to continue silencing, by any means necessary, those who expose Shell’s complete disregard for people, for the environment, for life itself. Shell and the Nigerian military government are united in this continuing violent assault of indigenous peoples and the environment. And just as oil companies exploit numerous communities in the Niger Delta, the government’s involvement in the above crimes is not limited to the Ogoni.
To allow the Ogoni to continue raising local and global awareness and pressure would be political suicide for an oppressive, violent military regime, whose only mandate is its own guns24. The Nigerian military government could not allow this movement of empowerment to spread into other impoverished communities of the Niger Delta. By harassing, wounding and killing Ogoni and others, the military ensures that it remains in power and that its pockets remain lined with the blood money of Delta oil.
What are groups in Nigeria doing to stop Shell?
The first highly visible action organized by the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) occurred on January 4, 1993 with 300,000 Ogoni (3/5 of the population) participating in the peaceful “Ogoni Day” demonstration. The overwhelming turnout signals a solid consensus for change, for freedom from the oppressions of Shell and the military regime. MOSOP is an umbrella association of ten Ogoni groups encompassing over half of the Ogoni population. Today, MOSOP’s leaders live in exile, but MOSOP remains a significant presence both in Nigeria and abroad. Since MOSOP became highly visible, other groups in oil producing regions have begun modeling their actions on MOSOP’s tactics of intense yet peaceful demonstrations, pan-ethnic-group organizations, and charters based on the Ogoni Bill of Rights. The military and Shell have been careful to prevent any movements from gaining MOSOP’s momentum. See The MOSOP Story by MOSOP Canada.
There are currently many groups in the Niger Delta working on researching and educating about the environmental and social impacts of the oil industry on the Niger Delta. A few of these are Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and Niger Delta Human and Environmental Rescue Organization (ND-HERO). Additionally, many ethnic groups other than the Ogoni are vocalizing and demonstrating against the environmental racism and human rights abuses of Shell, Chevron, Mobil, and many others.
MOSOP demands
In 1990, MOSOP created the Ogoni Bill of Rights, which outlines the major grievances of the Ogoni, and applies to the peoples of many other oil producing areas. The major points of the Ogoni Bill of Rights are:
clean up of oil spills
reduction of gas flaring
fair compensation for lost land, income, resources, life
a fair share of profits gained from oil drilled at their expense
self-determination
Refugees
An oft forgotten element of the Ogoni struggle are the thousands of people who have fled Ogoniland under threat of violence from the Shell Police and the Rivers State Task Force. Ogoni refugees are found in Benin, Togo, and Ghana and other countries25. A majority of these refugees are students. There are also many people living in exile in the US, Canada and Europe. In 1997, Diana Wiwa visited Ogoni refugees throughout the region.
The UN, the Commonwealth and the US
International condemnation of Nigeria is widespread, but there has been much more talk than action.
The UN
In a surprising and welcome move, the United Nations Special Rapporteur’s report on Nigeria (released 4/15/98) accused Nigeria and Shell of abusing human rights and failing to protect the environment in oil producing regions, and called for an investigation into Shell. The report condemned Shell for a “well armed security force which is intermittently employed against protesters.” The report was unusual both because of its frankness and its focus on Shell, instead of only on member countries. This was repeated in a November 1998 visit by the same official to Nigeria and the Delta region.
The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth is a group of 53 developed and developing nations around the world. Almost all members have had a past association with another Commonwealth country, as colonies or protectorates or trust territories. The Commonwealth believes in the promotion of international understanding and co-operation, through partnership. Nigeria’s membership of the Commonwealth was suspended by Commonwealth Heads of Government on 11 November 1995. Despite repeated pleas from Nigerian human rights activists, the Commonwealth has failed to follow through on threats of expulsion.
The US: words without action
In word, the United States is a strong critic of the Nigerian government, both past and present. It has condemned the existence of the military regime, of election cancellations, and of the situation in Ogoniland. It has threatened to take action. Yet it never does. As the largest consumer of Nigerian oil, the US could be the strongest advocate for human rights and justice, yet it refuses to take on that role. The US government has even protected Nigeria from economic sanctions by states and cities within the US. In March 1998 an official from the Clinton administration warned the Maryland House and Senate that bills creating state-wide economic sanctions against Nigeria for human rights abuses are a violation of US commitments to international trade agreements and to membership in the World Trade Organization. The Clinton administration termed such bills a “threat to the national interest.” Not surprisingly, multinational oil companies such as Shell, Mobil, and Chevron lobby heavily against aggressive US policy towards Nigeria, an approach which appears to be working.
Sources:
1. Watts, Michael, “Black Gold, White Heat,” in Geographies of Resistance, Steve Pile, Michael Keith,eds., London: Routledge, 1997. 2. Nnadozie, Emmanuel, Oil and Socioeconomic Crisis in Nigeria, Lewiston: Mellon University Press, 1995. 3. Watts, op.cit. 4. Nigeria Environmental Action Study Team (NEST), Nigeria’s Threatened Environment, Ibadan, 1991. 5. Saro-Wiwa, Ken, Genocide in Nigeria, Port Harcourt: Saros International Publishers, 1989. 6. Ellis, Glenn (Director), “The Drilling Fields,” 1994, text from film by Catma Films. 7. Saro-Wiwa, Ken, Genocide in Nigeria. 8. Shell, 1996. 9. Ake, Claude, “Shelling Nigeria Ablaze,” Tell, 1/29/96, p. 34. 10. Cayford, Steven, “The Ogoni “Uprising: Oil, Human Rights and a Democratic Alternative in Nigeria,” Africa Today, vol. 43, no. 2, Apr/June 1996, p. 183. 11. Ellis, op.cit. 12. Watts, op.cit. 13. Project Underground, The Flames of Shell: a fact sheet, Berkeley, 1996. 14. Project Underground and Rainforest Action Network, Human Rights and Environmental Operations Information on the Royal Dutch/ Shell Group of Companies: 1996-1997 Independent Annual Report, 1997. 15. NEST, op.cit. 16. Marrah, Kofi, “No Let-up in Ogoniland Struggle”, African Agenda, Third World Network Features, June, 1998. 17. Ellis, op.cit. 18. Ellis, op.cit. 19. Nigerian News du Jour, “Environmental Action Group says military on Shell’s payroll,” 4/23/98. 20. Human Rights Watch, The Ogoni Crisis, report 7/5, New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995. 21. Robinson, Deborah, Ogoni: The Struggle Continues, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1996. 22. Birnbaum, Michael, QC, “Nigeria: Fundamental Rights Denied,” Article 19, Appendix 10. 23. Kudirat Institute for Nigerian Democracy, “Oil Economy,” KIND Website 24. Watts, op.cit. 25. Wiwa, Diana, “The Role of Women in the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Ogoni,” Delta website, , October 1997.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
I am your fan and a lover of your show because of your in-depth research on so many issues. Since few weeks ago I noticed that you have been talking about the environmental catastrophe caused by BP in America.
May I also draw your attention to Nigeria oil spill by Shell , an American company that has completely killed lives and continue to kill lives in Niger delta and no body dare to speak about it. I can feel your passion when you talk about BP oil spill in your country. You can imagine how frustrating it has been for us over five decades of oil spill by your very own SHELL that has really killed, maimed and has completely damaged everything we have in that region. Rachel – Please tell Americans not to worry too much about this BP mistake because we have been there so many times with SHELL and yet we are still there now, and nothing has been done about it. Our brothers in the Niger Delta have also been feeling the same way your citizens are feeling now for decades and your country with our corrupt government does not want to help us fight for justice. Instead the only assitance United states did was to connive with United kingdom and together joined forces with our corrupt politicians to condemn and supress the activities of our activists in that region; who are resisting the government and SHELL from further damage of our land and natural endownments. You may remember the infamous speech of Gordon Brown who was speaking at the reception of our late president Umaru Yaradua last two years to No 10. At that news conference, Gordon Brown onlycontribution on the plight of our people was to offer military assistance to Nigeria to help keep the activists away.
Just to make it clearer to you, there are so many instances of oil spill activities in Niger delta, take for instance the one that happened in June 25, 2001, when an oil spill and explosion occurred in the aged and rusty pipeline in Ogbodo, Nigeria.
The incidence destroyed the only source of drinking water for 150,000 people. The spill also destroyed community fishing equipment and farmlands, and resulted in fumes and pollutants that have sickened people and forced many to evacuate their homes. What did Shell or our government did about that…. Nothing …..No body ever cared to help alleviate the plight of the victims, the Ikwere ethnic nationality of the River State of the Niger Delta.
I am blogger and activist. too.. we have been following the predicaments of our people and have written a lot about it. you can visit our website and see for yourself what SHELL has done in Niger-delta for approximately 50 years. I think you should not complain bitterly anymore because it is happening in America now …what do you say when it is happening elsewhere. what do you do when other lives and resources have been ruined by your country. I think it will be advisable too to speak as well on this issue as it affect other people too. no life is more precious than the other Nigerian or American alike.
I would be glad if you can speak out also on the criminal activities and horrific doing that are not spoken out but are taking place in other country by your very own oil companies. If not ,it may likely be a law of karma that is visiting your politicians to make them feel what our people have felt for 50 years over.
You know better than me about your country’s greedy desire for our oil and our politician’s inordinate desire for money. see what is happening in our country too
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Women’s Rights as Human Rights: The Case of the Ogbodo Shell Petroleum Spill in Rivers State, Nigeria
During my ten day visit in July 2001 to oil-impacted communities in Nigeria’s oilbelt, as a guest of Niger Delta Women for Justice and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria; a massive spillage of crude petroleum took place in a large town called Ogbodo, near Port Harcourt. The fundamental right to life of thousands of Nigerians has been put in question by this Shell oil pipeline explosion and the resulting 18-day long spill. Human rights of all have been violated by corporate malpractice with state acquiescence. But especially the human rights of women have been violated. It is women who are the mainstay of the economy in the pristine tropical rain forest and riverine ecology of Ogbodo. It is women who gather seafood from the wetlands and mangrove swamps. It is women who make palm oil in hundreds of small factory operations. It is women who grow vegetables and gather medicinal herbs from the forests. It is women’s power that has been undermined by the sudden destruction of the economy of Ogbodo. Expanding corporate power, in this case expressed by Shell, the world’s second largest oil corporation; has eliminated overnight, the ecological foundation of women’s and men’s autonomous subsistence from which these self-confident peasant-fishing people had, for centuries, derived significant wealth and tremendous cultural resilience.
As women and men of Ogbodo struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis without drinking water and in the midst of breath-chocking petroleum fumes; the web of resistance is woven yet again. A very long history of autonomous struggle is there as a grounding. But also there is in the Delta a raw fear of massacre. Shell, other transnational oil companies and the Nigerian state have visited upon oil-traumatized communities in the recent past the most terrible retribution for imagined and actual resistance to oil company presence and to oil company destruction. Shell’s unfounded charge, immediately upon hearing reports that the Shell pipeline carrying oil through Ogbodo had burst, was that villagers cut the line, despite its being buried six feet deep and split from its underside. Shell further charged that villagers prevented Shell personnel from entering the community. Villagers refuted these charges but expressed palpable fear that the false allegations were a prelude to military attack and massacre, since this was the characteristic pattern of response by oil companies and the government to crisis in the Niger Delta. Villagers’ terror was intensified when Shell contractors set alight crude oil on top of the creeks and lakes which surround almost all village land.
Women’s resistance is thus taking the form of declarations of cordiality to all visitors, especially the media. Ogbodo women moved to actively establish alliances with the non-governmental organization, Niger Delta Women for Justice, immediately after the crude coursed through their farms and fishing ponds. On 14 July 2001 community spokespersons appealed for help and a hearing from human rights organizations, from Environmental Rights Action, from the United Nations and the Red Cross and from the international media. Women of Ogbodo draw strength from the gains made by Ogoni women in FOWA (Federation of Ogoni Women’s Associations) within MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People), the organization established by Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995 by the military regime with Shell complicity. The steadfast stand of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s parents, who continue to call for popular resource control and the expulsion of Shell from the Niger Delta, serves as a strength and inspiration to the Ijaw peoples from which the women and men of Ogbodo are drawn.
In June and July 2001, as G8 protestors against corporate globalization prepared to go to Genoa, Italy; on the ground in Nigeria 150,000 residents of the community of Ogbodo battled a massive petroleum spill from a Shell pipeline which burst on 24 June, churning crude into the surrounding waterways for 18 days until Shell clamped the pipe on 12 July. Severe environmental damage and threat to life by Shell’s neglect is the other side of the `corporate rule’ coin of ever-expanding neo-liberal license. The dangers to human life, human rights and the environment were dramatically experienced by Ogbodo community members in Nigeria’s `Shell-Shocked’ oilbelt. It is precisely these dangers that the 100,000 protestors in Genoa sought to causally link to the expansion of corporate rule.
Under the rubric of co-called `free-trade’ Shell and other oil companies are being given carte blanche to expand petroleum exploration and production activities in Nigeria and elsewhere with ever-decreasing provision for ecological and social accountability. For example, Nigeria and the World Bank have, in 2001, agreed to a US$15,000,000 loan, in which World Bank public funds are made available to enable contractors to Shell to build petroleum infrastructure. What is especially negative about this loan is that it is made under a new `fast track’ provision which licenses Shell’s contractors, who are the loan beneficiaries, to forego the carrying out of normal and, under World Bank operating principles, legally required, environmental and social impact assessments (Institute for Policy Studies and Friends of the Earth, `World Bank plans to fund `Risky’ Project Involving Shell in Nigeria,’ 24 May 2001. For copies of the leaked document containing details, visit http://www.seen.org). Shell’s June-July 2001 violations of environmental and human rights are assessed in the following eight points:
1. On 24 June 2001 the community of Ogbodo (150,000 people) in Rivers State, Nigeria, heard a loud explosion which was the bursting of a Shell Petroleum pipeline which traverses the village lands, themselves nearly surrounded by waterways. Crude oil began to spill out into the environment. Rains and swiftly flowing water rapidly distributed the crude oil into the waterways surrounding the community.
2. The next morning, June 25th, community members informed Shell Petroleum Development Corporation in Port Harcourt of the oil spill. Shell workers were on strike. No quick response was forthcoming. Days passed as the oil flowed into rivers around Ogbodo. Finally a Delta State based Spill Response Company contractor to Shell arrived on the site. Then a major fire raged around the town. Villagers claim that the contractor set the fire to burn off some of the crude. Trees were burned and community members fled in terror.
3. Eventually Shell deposited ten 500-litre drinking water plastic tanks in Ogbodo. This was drastically inadequate for the 150,000 people all of whom had depended on creeks for water. The tanks were filled every two to three days by Shell. The supplies of water were then withdrawn from the tanks by villagers in just a few hours. Shell’s extremely inadequate response left the community with almost no drinking water, and nothing for cooking food, washing dishes, clothes or their bodies.
4. Some days after the spill began Shell sent an old van with three community health workers in it to dispense first aid, mainly in the form of tablets. There was one doctor with the team for a few hours each weekday but not on Sundays. Villagers were acutely ill. On Saturday 14 July I was informed by one of the health workers that he had seen only 12 patients that day. He would not comment further. Villagers complained of many ailments and told our media team that they were not being attended to. They informed us that three people who had been in good health prior to the spill had died just after it. Families with money and alternative lodging were evacuating Ogbodo. But the vast majority had no lodging alternatives and no water. Petroleum fumes were intense as were insect infestations including malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
5. On Monday 9 July 2001 contract workers employed by Shell stated that they had removed 70,000 barrels of crude from waterways via truck. On Saturday 14 July crude was covering waterways. I took a sample of water from the community’s main water supplying stream: it is mainly crude oil.
6. On Tuesday 10 July Shell issued a press release in which the company falsely alleged that:
a. the pipe was opened by community members engaged in sabotage;
b. the community members prevented Shell personnel from approaching the spill site. The accusations were of hostility to Shell and threats of hostage taking
c. unknown parties had cut plastic tubes of about six inches in diameter which the clean-up contractor had placed in creeks in a (futile) attempt to stem the flow of crude into surrounding villages;
d. Shell had provided drinking water, food and medical attention to Ogbodo victims.
On 14 July chiefs and villagers stated that these claims were false. The Shell claim to have provided emergency water, food and medical attention was true but the amounts were so pitifully inadequate as to suggest that the claims were made by Shell strictly for public relations purposes.
7. On 14 July the chiefs refused to receive a few bags of relief food supplies until Shell retracted its false accusations regarding alleged sabotage of the pipeline (Shell’s standard charge despite not ever bringing suspects to account) which was old and deteriorated with rust. The pipeline was well past its lifetime of safe operation and should have been replaced by Shell years ago. Villagers refused the token food supplies, which Shell deposited at the local police station, until Shell retracted its claims about hostility from villagers as Shell’s reason for its very late response to the spill.
8. Shell drew up a draft `Memorandum of Understanding’ between itself and the Ogbodo chiefs in an attempt to conflate the following two distinct stages of oil company response to its spill of petroleum:
a. Stage One: emergency life support to the victims, including medical and evacuation response; combined with prompt halting of flow of crude in the broken pipeline, clamping of the pipeline and emergency clean-up of spilled crude;
b. Stage Two: longer-term reclamation of the environment, documentation of both short and long-term health implications pending compensation; and documentation of all other impacts and costs, in particular those concerning economic loss and elimination of a whole riverine, fishing and agricultural way of life.
By delivering a draft Memorandum of Understanding to the chiefs on 14 July prior to taking care of the first emergency concerns (a, above); Shell was making life-support dependent on chiefs signing a long-term compensation agreement. The villagers were in crisis and hence were not in a position to settle final compensation claims. The immediate need was and is for life support. But Shell was making the provision of such life-support conditional upon community agreement to substandard terms for basic compensation and fundamental rehabilitation. This is unprincipled and was identified by chiefs as yet another instance of continuing environmental racism on the part of Shell against their community and other settlements in the Niger Delta.
Shell was said to be offering compensation of 100 million naira (100,000 US dollars or UK sterling 60,000) to compensate for the devastation. This sum is absurdly inadequate, even for a single person from the 150,000 strong community. Nevertheless, the Nigerian media reported that government representatives were endorsing Shell’s proposed `settlement.’
The chiefs’ counter claim was to ask Shell for copies of the full agreements with the last five communities into which Shell had spilled crude oil which are located in Western Europe and North America. The Ogbodo chiefs intended to seek comparable long term reparations.
By mid-July Ogbodo women were working actively with members of the non-governmental organization, Niger Delta Women for Justice, in completing reporting questionnaires which facilitated their documenting the health and economic impacts of the Shell oil spill. Members of the Niger Delta Women for Justice have raised the question of seeking global solidarity in instituting a renewed international boycott of all Shell petroleum products. Members of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria are engaged in defining methods for establishing `resource control’ by local people over petroleum in the Niger Delta. These non-governmental organizations along with the International Oil Working Group are raising the human rights violations committed by Shell and other petroleum transnationals in all available fora, with a view to gaining experience in organizing coordinated initiatives in several countries to resist and transcend the life-threatening corporate-rule regime. Meanwhile the August-September 2001 United Nations `World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance’, Durban, South Africa, will decide on how comprehensive reparations, including for corporate environmental and economic racism, can best be secured.
Further Information:
Terisa E. Turner is a co-director of the United Nations non-governmental organization, International Oil Working Group, (IOWG), which possesses digital video footage, broadcast quality audio and still photographs of the Shell oil spill in Ogbodo, of the impact of petroleum transnational corporations in Nigeria’s oil belt, of the father and mother of Ken Saro-Wiwa, of testimonies from villagers and from resources people working with human rights and ecology non-governmental organizations in the Niger Delta. The documentation was gathered jointly with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and with Niger Delta Women for Justice, who, along with the IOWG, are the custodians of these valuable chronicles of corporate crime and popular struggle. The International Oil Working Group is committed to making this media coverage available to people acting in solidarity with the communities which are standing up to corporate destruction, by (a) direct loan and (b) posting to Indymedia web sites.
For additional information and analysis please consult the following documents or contact the web sites and lists:
Video: Delta Force Information about this video may be obtained by writing to info@mosopcanada.org
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Shell’s oil Spills in Bille, in Niger Delta’s River State
Highlights
Oil spills devastate rural ecology
Shell’s double standards cause crisis among community people
Fresh oil spill heightens tension
Fresh crisis imminent
“When oil spill here, those of us who go to the mangrove forest to harvest periwinkle and other sea foods suffer. The crude oil affects the growth and development of the mangrove forest resources such as periwinkles, oysters, crabs etc. When the river is polluted they all die.” Mrs. Ikuroma Samipe, 36 years old mother of 5 children (a fisher woman)
“We are tired of talking about spills because talking about it is very shameful, if you talk and people respond that is a different and tolerable situation. We have talked and are tired. I remember when we never had these spills, we used to go fishing and would catch fishes in very large quantities, of different types. But, today you people call it modern period and our fishes and other things are dying and hunger is killing our children and us. Is this civilization?” Ali Omuso, 58 years fisherman and father of 14 children
“Our parents depend on fishing to feed and train us in school. These days, no matter how they double their effort in the fishing business, the catch is very low and inadequate, the Shell people should employ our parents and pay them better money since their work doesn’t allow our parents to continue their work.” Mr. West Tomb Okoma, 20 years old student of the Rivers State College of Arts and Science (RSCAS), Port Harcourt
“Shell is causing trouble in our community. When oil spills, they refuse to compensate us and fishermen will be attacking us that we used to collect bribe from Shell. Also, they are operating on our land, they will not pay us compensation, rather they will prefer to be paying rent to our neighbours and we that suffer from their pollution will not be compensated that is why 6 July, 1999. We shut down Shell’s two flow stations on our soil and till Rivers State Government intervened. Shell has not shown enough and genuine concern towards our plight, and if they continue like this we shall tell them that our Rivers and land is our rights.” Mr. Bruce Balafama, 38 years, father of two children, Vice-President of the Bible Youths Federation (BYF)
INTRODUCTION Bille is a rural community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State. Bille is an ancient autonomous community and is made up of 15 villages and 40 fishing settlements. It is about two hours drive by an outboard engine powered boat from Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State. Bille is a typical salt-water riverine community with rich mangrove vegetation. The main occupation of the people is fishing. The community has a population of 30,000 peoples (Nigeria’s 1991 census). The Bille community houses two flow stations belonging to Shell and hosts their 24 well heads. Nothing less than 41,000 barrels of crude oil per day are sucked out of the bowels of the earth here, going by Shell’s conservative estimate. Shell discovered oil in Bille land in commercial quantity in 1958.
UNENDING SPILLS; ECOLOGICAL DEVASTATION/POLLUTION IN BILLE On January 20, 1997 oil spill occurred at the Awoba flow station (now Bille II) and a large quantity of crude oil spilled into the entire EMO-PEPELYE creek causing extensive damage to the aquatic lives therein. Even the connecting creeks and mangrove forests were devastated. Shell’s contractors cleaned the spill, but no compensation was paid. The negotiation for compensation broke down between Shell and the community peoples and other events subsequently over took the process.
January 10, 1998, spill occurred at Well 9 at Awoba flow station (now Bille II). An enormous amount of crude oil was discharged into the environment, with the waters of Sombriero River conveying the sludge over a wide area.
May 29, 1998, another major spill occurred at same Well 9 at Awoba flow station. Shell’s aged pipeline “exploded” and a huge quantity of crude oil was rained into the eco-system. A day after the incidence Shell repaired the faulty facility and mopped up the affected area and paid compensation, but rural peoples told ERA that the compensation was not enough given the high level of ecological damage they suffered.
August 27, 1998 at Well 13, the delivering pipeline from Well 13 to Awoba flow station exploded and set the facility ablaze and the adjacent mangrove forest was enflamed. Several fishing traps, and nets around the affected area were burnt. There was a stampede and several community peoples in the nearby mangrove forests harvesting forest produces got wounded
On January 10, 1999 at the Awoba manifold, another spill occurred too. This spill occurred from rusty high-pressure crude oil pipes. Community people told ERA that this was a major spill. The crude oil rose up to 5 feet above ground level and poisoned the mangrove vegetation. Although community peoples told ERA that a little compensation was paid, but Shell could not clean the spill effectively.
May 18, 1999 at the Well 12 Awoba (Bille I), “a minor spill” occurred as a result of failure of Shell’s facility. The community mobilised her youths and “cleaned” the spill using rags.
The youth leader, Mr. Bruce Balafama told ERA in an interview, “The community people considers the spill minor, Shell considers it minor and the spill was neither cleaned nor compensation paid”. Experts maintain that no matter how little the volume of crude oil introduced into any vulnerable environment, like that of aquatic ecology like Bille, it will certainly cause enormous damage.
FRESH CRUDE OIL SPILL, FRESH CRISIS UNDERWAY On November 15, 1999 at Well 7, Owoba flow station, a major spill occurred and large quantity of crude oil rained into the nearby environment. ERA field research / investigations revealed that the following complex and connecting river courses like Sombriero, Suwosuku, Kalabille and Bille creeks are subject to tidal regimes and the following communities were affected, like Ama, Oru-ama, Tumba-Ama, Obow-Ama, Ikiri Kama, Aguama, and Kala Eke-Ama. Although, the family facility has been repaired and the affected facility cleaned but the far-flung communities affected in the path of tidal waves were not cleaned. The current spill is a major one, which even Shell admitted to the community, was caused by their facility failure and, not sabotage as they used to tell community people.
EFFECTS OF THE SPILLS ERA findings in the area revealed that Shell facilities criss-crossed the extensive network of creeks and mangrove swamp/salt march in the area.
The fishes and other aquatic organism in the area use the food-rich estuary and creeks as nursery and feeding grounds and spend their adulthood in the nearby ocean, but the oil spills have driven them away. Experts argue that oil spillages is not likely to cause any significant direct mortality to pelagic fish (Mcintyre, 1982). ERA finding revealed that some species, however, may avoid the polluted area for a few weeks. Species which spawn in the estuary may suffer mortality of egg or larvae.
Also, there are bottom-feeding, predatory species. The fishes are caught mainly with hooks, the shrimp by beach seining. Oil spill is not normally expected to impact these species directly, since they are subtidal. However, fishing activity will be affected by any damage to bait organisms. Crude oil contamination of the intertidal mangrove swamps will result in high mortalities of crabs, and certain fish, including their intertidal eggs; mudskippers, etc. The effects of spills will persist at least for several months. Polluted mangrove mud will also pollute intertidal puddles and shorelines for weeks or months, affecting the tilapia and mullet inhabiting the puddles. The residual oil will likely cause fin rot and some consequent mortality, mainly in tilapias and top minnows for up to several months (Powell, 1987).
SHELL AS A CORPORATE CITIZEN OF BILLE Facilities belonging to Shell occupy almost half of Bille community. The facilities are located in closed proximity to human habitation (about half a kilometer away from the community).
Despite the huge presence of Shell Bille lacks portable water, electricity, employment, etc. The facilities are enjoying light and water, Shell should extend to its community (Shell is a corporate citizen).
ERA’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Shell should under take an immediate and thorough cleaning of the impacted areas.
Shell should provide immediate relief materials and compensations to the community.
Shell should replace all old facilities there.
Shell should behave and operate in the Bille community as a corporate citizen.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write letters to Shell on the plight of the Bille people and the hardship of its facilities and operations has caused the people.
Send copies of your letter to your local newspapers.
Write to your legislators/law makers representing your constituency, and request them to take keener interest in environmental issues and also to remind Shell of their over-advertised community development projects.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Law of Karma at work: Deepwater horizon disaster already killing millions in Nigeria for decades by careless American companies SHELL.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades
A ruptured pipeline burns in a Lagos suburb after an
explosion in 2008 which killed at least 100 people. Photograph: George Esiri/Reuters
We reached the edge of the oil spill near the Nigerian village of Otuegwe after a long hike through cassava plantations. Ahead of us lay swamp. We waded into the warm tropical water and began swimming, cameras and notebooks held above our heads. We could smell the oil long before we saw it – the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air.
The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.
Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. “We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots,” said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. “This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.”
That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.
In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP‘s Deepwater Horizon rig last month.
That disaster, which claimed the lives of 11 rig workers, has made headlines round the world. By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.
On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.
Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. “We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old,” said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.
This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno: “Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable.”
With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.
“If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention,” said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. “This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta.”
“The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different.”
“We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US,” said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International. “But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people’s livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
“This has gone on for 50 years in Nigeria. People depend completely on the environment for their drinking water and farming and fishing. They are amazed that the president of the US can be making speeches daily, because in Nigeria people there would not hear a whimper,” he said.
It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger delta each year because the companies and the government keep that secret. However, two major independent investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at sea, in the swamps and on land every year as has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so far.
One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil – 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska – has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.
According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up. More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone.
Last month Shell admitted to spilling 14,000 tonnes of oil in 2009. The majority, said the company, was lost through two incidents – one in which the company claims that thieves damaged a wellhead at its Odidi field and another where militants bombed the Trans Escravos pipeline.
Shell, which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, says that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure. “We had 132 spills last year, as against 175 on average. Safety valves were vandalised; one pipe had 300 illegal taps. We found five explosive devices on one. Sometimes communities do not give us access to clean up the pollution because they can make more money from compensation,” said a spokesman.
“We have a full-time oil spill response team. Last year we replaced 197 miles of pipeline and are using every known way to clean up pollution, including microbes. We are committed to cleaning up any spill as fast as possible as soon as and for whatever reason they occur.”
These claims are hotly disputed by communities and environmental watchdog groups. They mostly blame the companies’ vast network of rusting pipes and storage tanks, corroding pipelines, semi-derelict pumping stations and old wellheads, as well as tankers and vessels cleaning out tanks.
The scale of the pollution is mind-boggling. The government’s national oil spill detection and response agency (Nosdra) says that between 1976 and 1996 alone, more than 2.4m barrels contaminated the environment. “Oil spills and the dumping of oil into waterways has been extensive, often poisoning drinking water and destroying vegetation. These incidents have become common due to the lack of laws and enforcement measures within the existing political regime,” said a spokesman for Nosdra.
The sense of outrage is widespread. “There are more than 300 spills, major and minor, a year,” said Bassey. “It happens all the year round. The whole environment is devastated. The latest revelations highlight the massive difference in the response to oil spills. In Nigeria, both companies and government have come to treat an extraordinary level of oil spills as the norm.”
A spokesman for the Stakeholder Democracy Network in Lagos, which works to empower those in communities affected by the oil companies’ activities, said: “The response to the spill in the United States should serve as a stiff reminder as to how far spill management in Nigeria has drifted from standards across the world.”
Other voices of protest point out that the world has overlooked the scale of the environmental impact. Activist Ben Amunwa, of the London-based oil watch group Platform, said: “Deepwater Horizon may have exceed Exxon Valdez, but within a few years in Nigeria offshore spills from four locations dwarfed the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster many times over. Estimates put spill volumes in the Niger delta among the worst on the planet, but they do not include the crude oil from waste water and gas flares. Companies such as Shell continue to avoid independent monitoring and keep key data secret.”
Worse may be to come. One industry insider, who asked not to be named, said: “Major spills are likely to increase in the coming years as the industry strives to extract oil from increasingly remote and difficult terrains. Future supplies will be offshore, deeper and harder to work. When things go wrong, it will be harder to respond.”
Judith Kimerling, a professor of law and policy at the City University of New York and author of Amazon Crude, a book about oil development in Ecuador, said: “Spills, leaks and deliberate discharges are happening in oilfields all over the world and very few people seem to care.”
There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: “What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.
“It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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