Shell escapes $5 billion Bonga oil spill fine as UK court rules against Nigeria

The judgment is a fallout of years of litigation between the oil giant, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) and victims of the 2011 Bonga oil spill which affected about 350 communities across the Niger-delta region.

While transporting crude from the company’s Float Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel at the Bonga deep offshore on December 20, 2011, the export line ruptured and spewed about 40,000 barrels (6.4 million litres) of crude oil into the sea.

According to the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), SNEPCo incurred a penalty of $5 billion as compensation for the damages done to natural resources and consequential loss of income by the affected shoreline communities.

NOSDRA further confirmed that during the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the oil spill had affected 285,000 persons from 350 communities and satellite villages within the contact area of the spill.

After failing to get SNEPCo to abide by the judgement of the high court in Nigeria, a group of Nigerians who were affected by the spill under the aegis of Oil Spills Victims Vanguard, OSVV, made up of about 27,800 individuals across the affected communities filed a case at the TTC High Court of Justice in London in 2017 on behalf of all the victims of Bonga oil spill.

The group in their prayers, asked the UK court to compel SNEPCo to pay the $5 billion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian government.

However, while delivering the judgement, the panel of five Supreme Court justices unanimously upheld the ruling of the two lower courts which held that the six-year time frame allowed for taking action on such cases had elapsed before the group presented the case for hearing.

Shell noted that the judgment of the British Supreme Court had ended all litigation in English courts related to the spill.