Niger Delta - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Shell faces calls to safely decommission old assets before Nigeria exit

NIGERIA needs to ensure that Shell safely dismantles its old infrastructure or pays to remove them from the Niger Delta before its exit, says a report on the environmental impact of the activities of multinational companies. Shell is set to exit from Nigeria's onshore oil and gas operations after agreeing in January to sell the business to a consortium of five mostly local companies for $2.4 billion. The deal is the latest by an international oil company seeking to divest from Nigeria's troubled onshore oil sector. But the cost of dismantling old assets could leave the country with environmental degradation, according to…

Mar

2024

By AUGUSTINE ABOH

Nigeria’s security problems deepen as Anglophone insurgency in Cameroon spills across border

NEWS

OVER the past two decades, Nigeria has grappled with multiple and complex national security threats, each posing a significant challenge to its stability. The nation finds itself fighting a violent militancy in the Niger Delta, conflicts between farmers and herders across multiple regions, terrorism and insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest and secessionist campaigns by groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra in the southeast. AUGUSTINE ABOH, PhD candidate in Global Governance and Human Security, University of Massachusetts Now a new layer of complexity has emerged in the form of the Ambazonian secessionist group from Cameroon. This…

Jan

2024

By CAMILLUS EBOH

Nigeria’s top court says Shell’s appeal should be heard after oil spill claim

NEWS

NIGERIA'S Supreme Court ruled that Shell should be granted a hearing over an alleged oil spill in the Niger Delta after the Court of Appeal halted an asset sale and ordered a judgement claim to be paid prior to hearing its case. The case, one of several against Shell Plc locally and abroad, started with a High Court ruling in November 2020 that ordered Shell to pay 800 billion naira ($878 million) to communities of Egbalor Ebubu in Rivers state, who accused the firm of an oil spill that damaged waterways and farms. Shell denies causing the spill. Shell had appealed…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Two South Koreans released after being kidnapped in Nigeria

NEWS

TWO South Koreans kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria earlier this month have been released safely, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The two men were taken after gunmen ambushed their convoy in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on December 12, killing four soldiers guarding the group and two civilian drivers. "On Friday, we secured custody of the two abducted Korean citizens," the ministry said in a statement. "Both people are currently in good health, and after a hospital checkup, they moved to a safe area and spoke with their families." Attacks by militants in the Niger Delta have dwindled over the years. But the region…

Nov

2023

By NATALIE GROVER, ROBERT HARVEY and AHMAD GHADDAR

Nigeria launches new ‘Nembe’ grade as ramps up oil output

BUSINESS

NIGERIA'S NNPC and Aiteo have launched a new grade of crude called Nembe through a joint venture, as Africa's largest oil producer ramps up its oil output. Crude theft, attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta and a lack of investment have meant output declines for many years, causing a dwindling of Nigerian government revenue and large fiscal deficits. But output has picked up in recent months. The Nembe crude stream will be managed and marketed by a joint venture between state-owned NNPC and oil firm Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd, the companies said on Tuesday, the first such crude…

May

2023

By MACDONALD DZIRUTWE

Nigeria needs $12 billion to clean up Bayelsa oil spills – report

NEWS

NIGERIA needs $12 billion to clean up decades-old oil spills in southern Bayelsa state over a 12-year period, a new report said and singled out Shell and Eni for being responsible for most of the pollution. Bayelsa is one of the major oil-producing states in the Niger Delta, a region blighted by pollution, conflict and corruption related to the oil and gas industry. Oil majors in Nigeria have long faced legal challenges over Niger Delta spills, which they mostly blame on sabotage and vandalism of pipelines and illegal refining. The Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission said in a report that it…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Nigerians accuse Shell of delay in oil spill London lawsuits

NEWS

SAM TOBIN SHELL Plc is attempting to shield itself from scrutiny over pollution in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, lawyers representing more than 13,000 Nigerians argued at London's High Court, allegations which the company strongly denies. Thousands of members of the Bille and Ogale communities are suing Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC over oil spills. Shell strongly denies any liability and argues that parts of the cases were brought too late. It also says the majority of the spills were caused by illegal third-party interference, such as pipeline sabotage and oil theft. The company is asking the High Court to set an initial…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

U.S. says it will repatriate to Nigeria about $1 mln embezzled by ex-official

NEWS

KANISHKA SINGH THE United States will repatriate to Nigeria nearly $1 million, which was embezzled by the former governor of an oil-producing state, the U.S. Justice Department said. The step was in accordance with an agreement between the two governments to repatriate assets the United States forfeited that were traceable to what it calls the kleptocracy of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former governor of the oil-producing state of Bayelsa in the Niger Delta, the Justice Department said in a statement.= Alamieyeseigha was accused of corruption in 2005 when he was caught with almost a million pounds in cash in his London home and was…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Victory for Nigerian farmers over Shell

NEWS

IN a victory for environmentalists, a Dutch appeals court on Friday said that the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell was responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to farmers. The case was brought in 2008 by four farmers and environmental group Friends of the Earth, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the region, the heart of Nigeria's oil industry. Friday's decision went a step further than a 2013 ruling by a lower court, saying that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary was responsible for multiple cases of…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Communities in oil-rich Niger Delta pin hopes on Shell climate case

NEWS

NELLIE PEYTON AS a legal case over energy giant Shell's planet-heating emissions kicked off in the Netherlands, activists said the health and livelihoods of people in Nigeria's oil-producing region would hinge on its outcome. Royal Dutch Shell faced its first court hearing on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by environmental and human rights groups in The Hague, the company's headquarters. Seven green groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Netherlands, filed the case on behalf of more than 17,000 Dutch citizens who say Shell is threatening human rights by knowingly undermining international climate goals. They are demanding the company…