Nigeria’s Bodo community, Shell fail to reach settlement over compensation offer
Date 2013/9/15 16:46:51 | Topic: Nigeria
| Nigeria’s Bodo community and the multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell have failed to reach a settlement over a compensation offer for damage from two major oil spills in 2008.
“We haven’t reached agreement on compensation, which is disappointing,” a spokesman for Shell’s Nigeria unit said on Friday.
According to a person close to the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the company offered total compensation of 7.5 billion naira ($46.3 million) to the community, which was rejected.
“The whole week has been deeply disappointing,” said Martyn Day of Leigh Day, the British law firm representing the community, who has been at the negotiating table with Shell since September 9 in Nigeria’s oil hub Port Harcourt.
The Bodo community’s law firm said the spills caused damage to 31,000 inhabitants of 35 villages in and around the Bodo lagoon and its associated waterways.
“The settlement figures are totally derisory and insulting to these villagers,” Day added, noting that “Our clients know how much their claims are worth and will not be bought off cheaply.”
Chief Kogbara, chairman of the Bodo Council, said, “It is a great shame that the negotiations have not led to a settlement. I had hoped that this week would at last see the end of the litigation and enable us to start the process of rebuilding the community.”
Shell has taken responsibility for the spill, but it says the damage caused and the number of people impacted is likely lower.
The giant oil and gas company argues that most of the spills in the region are due to militant attacks to steal crude oil.
In March, two Nigerian government agencies, in charge of environmental protection affairs, said the company must pay Nigeria $11.5 billion in compensation for an oil spill in December 2011.
The oil leak in 2011, which was one of the biggest in the history of Nigeria, caused roughly 40,000 barrels to spill into the Gulf of Guinea.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has also sought $6.5 billion as compensation for 100 communities it says were affected onshore.
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