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| English: Shell Puget Sound Refinery on the south end of March Point; Padilla Bay (behind); Fidalgo Bay (foreground) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
What it means is that international oil companies like Shell and others
may be held legally responsible for their activities, the activities of
their subsidiaries, and even partners, abroad. The Nigerian farmers at
the centre of the case going on in the Netherlands brought the case to
the Netherlands because Shell has its headquarters here. The hearing of
the case in the Netherlands means that oil companies ma
y no longer
be able to say they are not responsible or not to blame when disasters
happen - away from home, where they have their operations.
In
the case against Shell being heard in the Netherlands, the four farmers,
all from different parts of Nigeria's vast oil rich Niger Delta - a
region that produces close to 3 million barrels of oil every day - say
that Shell has failed to maintain its pipelines and other
infrastructure. This has caused huge quantities of oil to leak into
their fish farms, they argue, destroying their livelihoods
In
an ideal world, the farmers would have first tried to get Shell's
Nigerian subsidiary held responsible. But the environmental action group
Friends of the Earth alleges that because Shell is such a powerful and
influence force with Nigerian government officials, and even among
members of the judiciary, the case would have been unlikely to succeed
here.
The truth of the matter is that there are hundreds of
cases against oil companies in Nigeria, where victims allege oil
pollution by companies. But few have gotten justice.
Shell
denies the farmers' accusations, and says that the oil spills are being
caused by Nigerians engaged in running illegal oil refineries in the
area, who sabotage and burst pipelines, to siphon off oil. The oil rich
communities say that is not true; that the oil in illegal refineries
comes from the miles of leaking and poorly maintained pipeline lines
that snake through their villages.
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| English: Train at Shell Haven Train on the line in Shell Haven Oil Refinery. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Judges in the Netherlands
will hear evidence from the farmers and their legal representatives,
Friends of the Earth, and hear what Shell has to say too. A verdict is
expected at the end of the year. If Shell is found liable, not only may
they be forced to clean up the oil spills and fix broken pipelines, they
may also have to pay compensation to the victims.
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