Rgp92:

lol How do i post everything here and not just the link?

Ogoniland oil spills: Shell admits Nigeria liability
A man paddling a canoe in Rivers state, Nigeria The Niger Delta has few major roads and many villages lack electricity and clean water
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Oil giant Shell has accepted responsibility for two devastating oil spills in Nigeria's Ogoniland region.

The Bodo fishing community sued Shell in the UK, alleging that spills in 2008 and 2009 had destroyed the environment and ruined their livelihoods.

Their lawyer said they would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for one of the world's "most devastating oil spills".

Shell told the BBC it would settle the case under Nigerian law.

Experts who studied video footage of the spills say they could be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline, the UK's Guardian newspaper reports.

Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt in Nigeria, it reports.
'Severe poverty'

Correspondents say the spillage was caused by pipelines which ran through the village.

Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland in 1993 after the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa - who was later hanged - led a campaign against it for allegedly destroying the environment.
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    Marine life has been devastated within the 2,000 hectares of the creek and the mangroves have been, without exception, destroyed”

Martin Day Lawyer for claimants

Martyn Day, representing the 69,000-strong community, said they would demand "adequate compensation immediately".

"This is one of the most devastating oil spills the world has ever seen and yet it had gone almost unnoticed until we received instructions to bring about a claim against Shell in this country [UK]," he said.

He said the community had three sets of claims.

The first claim - for at least $100m (£61m) - was for to clean up the area.

The second one was for damages to the community land and the final one was for losses suffered by individual families, Mr Day said.

"The Bodo people are a fishing community surrounded by water. What was the source of their livelihood now cannot sustain even the smallest of fish. The spills have caused severe poverty amongst the community.

"Marine life has been devastated within the 2,000 hectares of the creek and the mangroves have been, without exception, destroyed," Mr Day said.

Shell said it accepted the spills were caused by equipment failure and not by sabotage or theft, which it said cause most of the spills in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

It said it would pay compensation in accordance with Nigerian law but warned it "could take several months to reach a conclusion".

Mr Day said the settlement could set a precedent for other communities in the Niger Delta to seek compensation in British courts.

Communities have repeatedly claimed that international oil firms fail to respect their rights and contaminate their land with oil spills, though the companies dispute this.

Rgp92:

Aha, so you just copy everything?

Royal Dutch Shell faces having to pay compensation of potentially more than £250m ($410m) after the Anglo-Dutch oil group admitted liability for two spills in Nigeria following a legal claim brought in the UK.

kalokalo:

98% of oil spills in Nigeria are caused by vandalization/sabotage/oil thieves mostly by the locals themselves. An oil company will not cripple its own financial bottomline by vandalizing its own installations and pipelines and spill oil when it would mean massive losses to it in hundreds of millions of dollars!

Why would they spill oil they can sell for $$$ in the international market . It goes against every economic common sense. The other 2% is usually due to the government sometimes preventing the oil companies from performing periodic maintenance on their infrastructure since since it would mean a shutdown and revenue loss for the country.

kalokalo:

98% of oil spills in Nigeria are caused by vandalization/sabotage/oil thieves mostly by the locals themselves. An oil company will not cripple its own financial bottomline by vandalizing its own installations and pipelines and spill oil when it would mean massive losses to it in hundreds of millions of dollars!

Why would they spill oil they can sell for $$$ in the international market . It goes against every economic common sense. The other 2% is usually due to the government sometimes preventing the oil companies from performing periodic maintenance on their infrastructure since since it would mean a shutdown and revenue loss for the country.

Shell said it accepted the spills were caused by equipment failure and not by sabotage or theft

gboye_1999:

@ Beaf

True shell must pay adequate enough compensation to this communities but let us also utilize the opportunity to examine ourselves. A host of times, sometimes up to 90% of the spills are caused by members of the communities themselves.
Bunkering, vandalization so as to claim some short-sighted economic gains are the major reasons aside shell's non-challant posture that cause spills in the Niger Delta.

The whole issue still boils down to lack of good governance to provide basic amenities that would have pipe breaching a non option.

Experts who studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline.

Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt in Nigeria.

Rgp92:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14391015?OCID=fbwin

[size=18pt]Ogoniland oil spills: Shell admits Nigeria liability[/size]


Oil giant Shell has accepted responsibility for two devastating oil spills in Nigeria's Ogoniland region.

The Bodo fishing community sued Shell in the UK, alleging that spills in 2008 and 2009 had destroyed the environment and ruined their livelihoods.

Their lawyer said they would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for one of the world's "most devastating oil spills".

Shell told the BBC it would settle the case under Nigerian law.
Experts who studied video footage of the spills say they could be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline, the UK's Guardian newspaper reports.

Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt in Nigeria, it reports.

[size=14pt]'Severe poverty'[/size]
Correspondents say the spillage was caused by pipelines which ran through the village.

Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland in 1993 after the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa - who was later hanged - led a campaign against it for allegedly destroying the environment.

Martyn Day, representing the 69,000-strong community, said they would demand "adequate compensation immediately".

"This is one of the most devastating oil spills the world has ever seen and yet it had gone almost unnoticed until we received instructions to bring about a claim against Shell in this country [UK]," he said.

He said the community had three sets of claims.

The first claim - for at least $100m (£61m) - was for to clean up the area.

The second one was for damages to the community land and the final one was for losses suffered by individual families, Mr Day said.

"The Bodo people are a fishing community surrounded by water. What was the source of their livelihood now cannot sustain even the smallest of fish. The spills have caused severe poverty amongst the community.

"Marine life has been devastated within the 2,000 hectares of the creek and the mangroves have been, without exception, destroyed," Mr Day said.

Shell said it accepted the spills were caused by equipment failure and not by sabotage or theft, which it said cause most of the spills in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

It said it would pay compensation in accordance with Nigerian law but warned it "could take several months to reach a conclusion".

Mr Day said the settlement could set a precedent for other communities in the Niger Delta to seek compensation in British courts.

Communities have repeatedly claimed that international oil firms fail to respect their rights and contaminate their land with oil spills, though the companies dispute this.

menek:

Some pockets gonna be fat soon, I bet u these farmers/fisher men won't receive kobo

kalokalo:

98% of oil spills in Nigeria are caused by vandalization/sabotage/oil thieves mostly by the locals themselves. An oil company will not cripple its own financial bottomline by vandalizing its own installations and pipelines and spill oil when it would mean massive losses to it in hundreds of millions of dollars!

Why would they spill oil they can sell for $$$ in the international market . It goes against every economic common sense. The other 2% is usually due to the government sometimes preventing the oil companies from performing periodic maintenance on their infrastructure since since it would mean a shutdown and revenue loss for the country.