The United Kingdom Supreme Court declared on Wednesday that it was too late for Nigerian plaintiffs to sue Shell’s two subsidiaries for an offshore oil spill from 2011, siding with the major British multinational oil and gas firm.
A vessel was allegedly loaded at Shell’s Bonga oilfield, 120 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, when an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil allegedly escaped.
According to Reuters, Shell denied the claims and asserted that the Bonga spill was distributed offshore and had no negative consequences on the beach.
The lawsuit was one of several legal disputes Shell had in London courts with Nigerians who reside in the oil-rich Niger Delta, an area plagued by pollution, war, and corruption linked to the oil and gas business.
Asserting that the ensuing oil slick poisoned their lands and waterways, ruining farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests, and religious shrines, a collection of 27,800 people and 457 towns has made multiple attempts to sue Shell.
However, a panel of five justices on the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed decisions by two lower courts that concluded the plaintiffs had filed their case after the six-year legal time had passed.
The claimants’ attorneys had contended that the pollution’s continuous effects constituted a “continuing nuisance,” a category of civil tort, which would have rendered the deadline irrelevant.
The plaintiffs’ argument is rejected by the Supreme Court. In this case, there was no persistent annoyance, Justice Andrew Burrows ruled.
According to Reuters, even though the Supreme Court case had two Nigerians as appellants, the decision would be applied to the thousands of other claims.
Shell claimed that the Supreme Court decision has ended all legal claims over the spill in English courts.
Despite being extremely unfortunate, the 2011 Bonga spill was quickly contained and cleaned up offshore, according to a Shell representative.
An email seeking comment from a lawyer for the Nigerian appellants did not receive a response right away.
In a prior lawsuit addressing Niger Delta pollution, the Supreme Court came down against Shell. It permitted a group of 42,500 farmers and fishermen from the Ogale and Bille communities to sue Shell over spills in February 2021; the High Court is now hearing the case.
In a different case, Shell finally conceded in 2015, following a protracted court battle in London, to compensate the Bodo community of the delta with 55 million pounds ($70 million) for two spills.
