Shell ignores the spill cleaning warnings “Fraud”, the whistle tells the BBC

An investigation by the BBC has revealed that Energy Giant Shell has ignored repeated warnings that the controversial operation to clean the oil areas of southern Nigeria have been obsessed with problems and corruption.

The Multinational Headquarters in London, along with the Nigerian government, has repeatedly stated that work to clean Ogonland's oil -contaminated websites, which started about eight years ago, is going well.

But the BBC has found evidence that they have been warned many times over several years, that the scheme created by the government and funded by various oil companies in the amount of $ 1 billion (805 million pounds) has suffered from a number of problems.

A close observer described the project for cleaning such as “CON” and “Fraud”, which wasted money and left the people of Ogonliland in the Niger Delta region, continuing to live with the devastating effects of oil pollution – 13 years after the main A UN report raised the lid on the seriousness of their situation.

Shell told the BBC: “The operating environment in Niger's Delta remains challenging because of the huge scale of illegal activities such as oil theft.

“When the spills happen from our facilities, we clean and forward, regardless of the reason. If it is an operative spill, we also compensate for people and communities.”

The allegations as a civil trial will be expected to begin on Thursday at the Supreme Court in London, where lawyers representing two communities of Ogonland of about 50,000 inhabitants will say that Shell should take responsibility for oil pollution between 1989 and 2020 ., allegedly from his infrastructure.

Communities claim that spills have left them without clean water, cannot deal with farms and fish, and create serious risks to public health.

Shell, who insists on selling her assets in the West African country to focus on offshore drilling and on the gas shore, said he would defend the claims.

He denies unlawful actions and says that the spills in the region are caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refining, which the company says is not responsible.

The BBC visited the affected areas in the Niger Delta, where Shell, the largest private oil and gas company in the country, opened the existence of crude oil 68 years ago.

The UN says that at least 13 million barrels – or 1.5 million tonnes – raw oil has been spilled since 1958 at least 7,000 incidents in the Niger Delta region.

The spills have left many families, worried about their health and livelihood.

37-year-old Grace Audi lives with his partner and two years old in Ogale, where there were at least 40 oil spills from Shell's infrastructure, according to Leigh Day, the UK company in the UK representing the communities in this case.

Her family and neighbors have access only to a polluted well, forcing them to buy clean water to use for drinking, cooking, washing and once a day, redness, at a price of 4,500 Nigerian Naras ($ 3, $ 2.40) – In an area where the average daily salary is less than $ 8.

This is a well -known story for many in Ogonland.

Paulina Agbekpeppe told the BBC that once surrounded the greenery of the thriving mangrove forests from his community in Bodo – which is not one of those who go to court on Thursday. She said that the rivers and reservoirs used to overcome all animals and fish, especially perivink.

“The place was greener, not only Mangri, but all along the coastline, there was a paw trees, palm trees and more. But during the spills, destruction is dirty everywhere,” says the 50-year-old mother at six.

Her family of generations survived fishing, while 10 years ago 10 years ago.

“Most of the children – from drinking water – have diseases. Many have died. I have lost eight children. My husband is sick.

“Since our livelihood has been taken away, people in Bodo are hungry and suffering.”

In 2011, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) published a basic pollution study on the oil -rich area.

He found members of a community in Ogonland to be contaminated with drinking water with a well -known carcinogen at more than 900 times above the direction of the World Health Organization (WHO). The same chemical, benzene, was found in all their air samples.

He also found that the sites that Nigerian's Nigerian subsidiary, the Nigeria Oil Development Company (SPDC), is said to have been forwarded, are still contaminated and the techniques they use do not reach the regulatory Requirements.

The report concludes that a complete cleaning of the area It will take 25-30 years – And this led to the formation of the hydrocarbon recovery project (Hyprep).

Initially, this was established by the Nigerian government in 2012, but in December 2016 no cleaning was started – until it was renewed by a new government.

Hyprep was funded by oil companies, including the State Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $ 350 million.

However, the BBC has seen internal documents that suggest that Shell and Nigeria's representatives have been warned many times by the agency's alleged fraudulent practices.

One person familiar with the project speaks to the BBC about their concerns – and asked to remain anonymous for fear of repression.

“The frequent knowledge is that really what we do is a fraud. The majority of them is to fool people out of Ogoni,” the whistle said.

“This is immortalized so that more money can be put into the pot and find themselves in the pockets of politicians and other people in power.”

Hyprep failures include:

• Contracts are assigned to companies that do not have the right experience
• Laboratory results are counterfeit – sometimes labeling of contaminated soil and water as pure
• Project costs are inflated
• External auditors on the case that they are blocked by site cleansing is done correctly.

In the record of a meeting in 2023, attended by representatives of the Nigerian subsidiary of Shell, UNP and Hyprep, it was pointed out that “incompetent” contractors were “engaged” again and that they should not be admitted to the -y the environment. “

A separate expired report observed by the BBC from the same year stated that the laboratory results were “regularly reported with deviations”.

In 2022, the UN wrote to the Nigeria Ministry of Environment, warning that if nothing changed, the “extremely bad standards” of cleaning would continue.

The BBC has asked Hyprep and the Nigerian government to comment on the accusations, but did not receive an answer.

But our investigation revealed evidence that Shell was aware of the problems.

At a meeting with the British Supreme Commissioner in Nigeria last January, protocols of which were received under the Freedom of Information Act, Shell's representatives acknowledged the “institutional challenges” of the Agency for Cleaning and the chance to refuse to “future funding” to it.

Shell said to the BBC: “Hyprep is an agency created and controlled by the Federal Government of Nigeria, with its Governing Board largely consisting of senior ministers and government officials, together with five communities and NGO representatives and one representatives . ”

This is not the only Ogonland recovery project that was claimed to have been fenced.

In 2015, Shell agreed to settle 55 million pounds for cleaning after two catastrophic spills in 2008 from her infrastructure in the Bodo area.

The company said the cleaning, conducted by the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI), which aims to serve as a mediator between oil companies, including Shell and the BODO community (and is partially funded by the oil giant and the Nigerian regulators) certified as 98% completed.

However, the BBC visits sites in the area and found a raw oil that leaks from the soil and sailed on waters.

Shell and ITM insist that all kinds of oil spills in the region are because of the thefts – known in the industry as “oil bunker”.

“There is a plan to call the contractors to clean these areas to specific as a standard,” Boniface Dumpe, BMI director, told the BBC.

“The responsibility of all stakeholders, to take care of their facilities, to ensure that re -running does not come from their facilities.

“But for cleaning the areas. I think it is also a certain responsibility for the community to ensure that some illegal activities also do not cause re -contamination.”

Shell said active measures are needed to prevent oil spills caused by oil bunker.

The company said: “We are taking extensive steps to prevent this activity and the spills it causes, including air monitoring, removing illegal pipeline connections and the construction of steel cells to protect wells.”

The alleged shortcomings in oil cleaning come when Shell prepares to sell its Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC, at Renaissance Africa, a consortium of local and international companies.

Some Ogonland locals have accused the oil giant of “running” of proper ground cleaning and waters, which are claimed to have contaminated.

They are also afraid that Shell can still benefit from the area by simply trading the oil extracted from the region in the future.

“The operations of any oil operator takes over the relevant pipelines will have a huge impact on their daily lives,” Joe Snape, a lawyer on Lee Day, told the BBC.

“There are incredibly few details about what these deals will bring.

“It's not clear how the Renaissance (Africa) will act forward. At least with Shell, we have the means to keep them for reporting.”

Mineral products, such as oil oil and gas, represent 90% of Nigeria exports, most of which come from the Niger Delta area.

The locals, whose main source of livelihood is agriculture and fishing, told the BBC that after the discovery of oil or what some call “black gold”, their home is pumped for profit – from large oil companies, by oil thieves and through corrupt politicians.

They say that they have not seen any benefit, they only suffer – as a patience of Okbo, who blames the last spills of oil for her collapsing cultures.

“Before the harvest I can eat some with my family and even sell some … but in the last few years I haven't gotten to get anything. It's really bad,” the 42-year-old BBC.