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Oil clean-up 'scam' warnings ignored by
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Simi Jolaoso
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A BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that energy giant Shell has ignored
repeated warnings that a controversial clean-up operation of oil-polluted areas of
southern Nigeria has been beset by problems and corruption.
The multinational headquartered in London, along with the Nigerian government, has
repeatedly stated that work to clean up oil-contaminated sites of Ogoniland, which
kicked off around eight years ago, is going well.
But the BBC has discovered evidence that they were warned repeatedly over several
years that the scheme, set up by the government and funded by various oil firms to the
tune of $1bn (£805m), has been suffering from a string of issues.
One close observer has described the clean-up project as a "con" and a "scam" that has
wasted money and left the people of Ogonliland in the Niger Delta region continuing to
live with the devastating impact of oil pollution - 13 years after a ground-breaking UN
report lifted the lid on the seriousness of their situation.
Shell told the BBC: "The operating environment in the Niger Delta remains challenging
because of the huge scale of illegal activities such as oil theft.
"When spills do happen from our facilities we clean up and remediate, regardless of the
cause. If it's an operational spill, we also compensate people and communities."
The allegations come as a civil trial is expected to begin on Thursday at the High Court
in London, where lawyers representing two Ogoniland communities of around 50,000
inhabitants will say Shell must take responsibility for oil pollution that occurred
between 1989 and 2020, allegedly from its infrastructure.
The communities say the spills have left them without clean water, unable to farm and
fish, and created serious risks to public health.
Shell, which has been pushing to sell its assets in the West African country to focus on
offshore drilling and onshore gas, has indicated it will defend the claims.
It denies wrongdoing and says spills in the region have been caused by sabotage, theft
and illegal refining for which the company says it is not liable.
The BBC has visited the affected areas in the Niger Delta, where Shell, the largest
private oil and gas company in the country, discovered the existence of crude oil 68
years ago.
The UN says at least 13 million barrels - or 1.5 million tonnes - of crude oil have been
spilled since 1958 in at least 7,000 incidents in the Niger Delta region.
The spills have left many families worried for their health and livelihoods.
Most of the children - from the
drinking water - have got diseases.
Many have died. I've lost eight kids.
My husband is sick"
Paulina Agbekpekpe
Resident of Bodo in Ogoniland
BBC
Grace Audi, 37, lives with her partner and two-year-old in Ogale, where there have been
at least 40 oil spills from Shell's infrastructure, according to Leigh Day, the UK-law firm
representing the communities in this case.
Her family and neighbours only have access to a contaminated borehole, forcing them
to buy clean water to use for drinking, cooking, washing and, once a day, flushing, at a
cost of 4,500 Nigerian naira ($3, £2.40) - in an area where the average daily wage is less
than $8.
It is a familiar story to many in Ogoniland.
Paulina Agbekpekpe told the BBC that lush greenery once surrounded thriving
mangroves of her community in Bodo - which is not one of those going to court on
Thursday. She said the rivers and ponds used to brim with all kinds of animals and fish,
particularly periwinkle.
"The place was greener, not only mangroves, but all by the shoreline - there were
pawpaw trees, palm trees and more. But during the spills, the destruction has polluted
everywhere," the 50-year-old mother of six said.
Her family had for generations survived on fishing, until a devastating spill 10 years
ago.
"Most of the children - from the drinking water - have got diseases. Many have died. I've
lost eight kids. My husband is sick.
"Because our livelihoods have been taken away, people in Bodo are hungry and
suffering."
In 2011, the UN's Environment Programme (UNEP) published a major study into the
impact of pollution on the oil-rich area.
It found members of one community in Ogoniland were drinking water contaminated
with a known carcinogen at levels more than 900 times above the World Health
Organization (WHO) guideline. The same chemical, benzene, was detected in all their
air samples.
It also found that sites that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum
Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), claimed to have remediated, were still
polluted and the techniques they used did not reach regulatory requirements.
The report concluded that a comprehensive clean-up of the area would take 25-30
years - and it led to the formation of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project
(Hyprep).
This was initially established by the Nigerian government in 2012, but no clean-up was
started - until it was relaunched by a new government in December 2016.
Hyprep was part-funded by oil companies including the state-owned Nigerian National
Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $350m.
Fishermen showed the BBC that oil is present in the waterways of Ogoniland
However, the BBC has seen internal documents that suggest representatives of Shell
and of the Nigerian government were warned numerous times of the agency's alleged
fraudulent practices.
One person aware of the project spoke to the BBC about their concerns - and asked to
remain anonymous out of a fear of reprisals.
"It's common knowledge that really what we're doing is a scam. Most of it is to fool the
Ogoni people," the whistleblower said.
"It's a con perpetuated so that more money can be put into the pot and end up in the
pockets of politicians and other people in power."
The allegations about failings at Hyprep include:
Contracts being awarded to companies that had no relevant experience
Laboratory results being falsified - sometimes labelling contaminated soil and water
as clean
Project costs being inflated
External auditors on occasion being blocked from checking the clean-up on sites
had been done properly.
In the minutes of one meeting in 2023, attended by representatives from Shell's
Nigerian subsidiary, the UNEP and Hyprep, it was pointed out that "incompetent"
contractors were "being engaged again" and that they should "not be allowed to further
degrade the environment".
In a separate leaked report seen by the BBC from the same year, it was pointed out that
laboratory results were "regularly reported with deviations".
In 2022, the UN wrote to the Nigeria's environment ministry, warning that if nothing
changed, the "extremely poor standards" of the clean-up would continue.
The BBC has asked Hyprep and the Nigerian government to comment on the
allegations but has received no response.
But our investigation has revealed evidence that Shell was aware of the problems.
In a meeting with the British high commissioner to Nigeria in January last year,
minutes of which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Shell
representatives acknowledged the "institutional challenges" of the clean-up agency and
the chance of the refusal of "future funding" towards it.
Shell told the BBC: "Hyprep is an agency established and overseen by the federal
government of Nigeria, with its governing council largely made up of senior ministers
and government officials, along with five representatives of communities and NGOs
and a single Shell representative."
AFP
The UN warned in 2011 it could up to 30 years to clean up the oil pollution in Ogoniland
This is not the only remediation project in Ogoniland that is alleged to have been
botched.
In 2015, Shell agreed to a £55m settlement for a clean-up after two catastrophic spills in
2008 from its infrastructure in the area Bodo.
The company said the clean-up, conducted by the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI),
which is meant to serve as a mediator between oil companies, including Shell, and the
Bodo community (and is part-funded by the oil giant and Nigerian regulators) has been
certified as 98% complete.
However, the BBC visited sites within the area and found crude oil oozing from the soil
and floating on waters.
Shell and the BMI insist any occurrences of oil spills in the region are because of theft -
known in the industry as "oil bunkering".
"There is a plan to call back the contractors to clean those areas to specification, to
standard," Boniface Dumpe, a director at the BMI, told the BBC.
"It is the responsibility of all stakeholders, Shell, yes, to take care of their facilities, to
ensure that re-oiling does not come from their facilities.
"But for the areas that have been cleaned. I would think that some responsibility is also
for the community to ensure that some illegal activities does not also cause re-
pollution."
Shell said it takes active measures to prevent oil spills caused by oil bunkering.
The company said: "We take extensive steps to prevent this activity and the spills it
causes including aerial surveillance, removing illegal connections on pipelines, and by
building steel cages to protect wellheads."
The alleged failings in the oil clean-up come as Shell prepares to sell its Nigerian
subsidiary, the SPDC, to Renaissance Africa, a consortium of local and international
companies.
Patience Ogboe says she planted this crop of maize four months ago but it has not grown properly
Some locals in Ogoniland have accused the oil giant of "running away" from properly
cleaning up the land and waters it is alleged to have polluted.
They also fear Shell may still profit from the area by simply trading the oil extracted
from the region in future.
"The operations of whichever oil operator takes over the relevant pipelines will have an
enormous impact on their day-to-day life," Joe Snape, a lawyer at Leigh Day, told the
BBC.
"There's incredibly little detail about what these deals will lead to.
"It is unclear how Renaissance [Africa] will act going forward. At least with Shell we
have means of holding them to account."
Mineral products, like petroleum oil and gas, account for 90% of exports from Nigeria,
most of which comes from the Niger Delta region.
Locals, whose main source of livelihood has been agriculture and fishing, told the BBC
that since the discovery of oil, or what some refer to as "black gold", their home had
been pumped for profit - by major oil companies, by oil thieves and by corrupt
politicians.
They say they have seen no benefit, only suffering - like Patience Ogboe who blames
recent oil spills for her failing crops.
"Formerly if I harvest I can eat some with my family and even sell some… but for the
past few years I could not get anything. It's really bad," the 42-year-old the BBC.
You may also be interested in:
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The Nigerian woman cleaning up a land soaked in oil
Nigeria's stolen oil, the military and a man named Government
Nigeria's illegal oil refineries: Dirty, dangerous, lucrative
Who wins when Nigeria's richest man takes on the 'oil mafia'?
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