‘Oil spill: Shell, Niger Delta community renew battle over $516m compensation’ 9 December 2019

The nine-year-old legal tussle between Royal Dutch Shell and Ejama-Ebubu community, a Niger Delta community, over $516 million compensation for an oil spill half a century ago degenerated at the weekend. While Shell is holding on to a judgment by a court in the United Kingdom, people of the community are waiting for the outcome of a similar case in Nigeria’s Supreme Court slated for hearing next month.

… A further hearing is due to take place in January. Thursday’s case originated from a claim brought in 2001 by the Ejama-Ebubu community. Royal Dutch Shell, a report won a UK ruling preventing London courts from enforcing a $516million Nigerian judgment for damages caused by an oil spill half a century ago. Judge Jason Coppel on Thursday overturned an attempt to carry over a 2010 ruling by a Nigerian court to the UK, saying that those proceedings were unfair because Shell was denied an opportunity to present a defence. Shell’s Nigerian units have been beset by lawsuits, many of them in UK courts, for their part in oil spills on the Niger Delta.

… “Thursday’s judgment sets aside the registration, preventing its enforcement in the UK Nicholas Ekhorutomwen, a lawyer for that Ejama-Ebubu community, said they were “disappointed” with the decision and would appeal,” Bloomberg reported yesterday.