BBC News, Ogoniland
The BBC investigation revealed that Shell energy giant neglected the repeated warnings that the controversial surgery of cleaning an area of contaminated with oil in southern Nigeria was preoccupied with problems and corruption.
Multinational headquarters in London, along with the Nigerian government, repeatedly stated that working on the cleaning of Ogoniland, contaminated with an oil, which started about eight years ago, is going well.
But the BBC revealed evidence that over several years they were repeatedly warned that the scheme set by the Government and funded various oil companies in the amount of $ 1 billion (805 million pounds), suffering from a number of questions.
One close observer described a cleaning project as a “con” and “fraud” that lost money and left the people from Ogonliland in the Niger Delta region, continuing to live with the devastating influence of oil pollution – 13 years after A Revolutionary UN report raised the lid to seriousness their situations.
Shell said to the BBC: “The work environment in the Niger Delta remains challenging because of a huge scale of illegal activities such as oil theft.
“When the pouring happened from our facilities, we clean and dream, regardless of the cause. If it is an operational spill, we also make up for people and communities.”
It is expected to start a civil trial on Thursday at a Visoko Court in London, where lawyers representing two Ogoniland communities of about 50,000 inhabitants will say that Shell must take responsibility for oil pollution that happened between 1989 and 2020, allegedly from its infrastructure.
Communities say pouring left them without pure water, incapable of agriculture and fish and have created serious risks for public health.
Shell, who pushed the sale of his property in West African land to focus on drilling at sea and gas on land, indicated that he would defend claims.
This denies injustice and says that spills in the region are caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refinement that the company says is not responsible.
The BBC visited the affected areas of Delta Niger, where Shell, the largest private oil and gas company in the country, revealed the existence of raw oil 68 years ago.
The UN says it is at least 13 million barrels – or 1.5 million tons – raw oils since 1958 spilled in at least 7000 incidents in the Delta Niger region.
Pouring has left many families worried about their health and life.
Grace Audi, 37, lives with his partner and two-year-old in Ogale, where there were at least 40 oil pouring from Shell’s infrastructure, according to Leigh Day, a company in the UK, which represents communities in this case.
Her family and neighbors have access to contaminated well, forcing them to buy clean water to be used for drinking, cooking, washing and, once a day, rinsing, at a price of 4,500 Nigerian nair (£ 3, £ 2,40) – to the area where it is average daily salary less than $ 8.
This is a well -known story to many in Ogoniland.
Paulina Agbekpekpe told the BBC that the lush greenery once surrounded the advanced Mangr’s Boda community – which is not one of those who go to court on Thursday. She said rivers and ponds used all types of animals and fish, especially Periwinkle.
“The place was greener, not only Mangrova, but all along the shore-the trees were palm trees, palm trees and more. But during the spill, destruction was contaminated everywhere,” said the 50-year-old mother of six.
Her family survived generations on fishing, until devastating spill 10 years ago.
“Most children – from drinking water – there are diseases. Many have died. I lost eight children. My husband is ill.
“Because we have been taken away from our lives, people in the point are hungry and suffer.”
In 2011, the UN Environment (UNEP) program published a major studies on the impact of pollution in the area rich in oil.
They found that members of a community in Ogoniland drank water contaminated with well -known carcinogenic at levels more than 900 times above the World Health Organization (WHO). The same chemical, Benzen, was discovered in all their air samples.
It was also found that the places that are Shell’s Nigerian Branch, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), claimed that they were removed, still polluted, and the techniques they used did not reach regulatory requirements.
The report concluded that comprehensive cleaning of the area it would take 25-30 years – And this led to the creation of a project of rehabilitation of the pollution of the hydrocarbons (Hyprep).
This was initially established by the Nigerian Government in 2012, but the cleaning began – until the new government launched it in December 2016.
Hyprep funded oil companies, including the state Nigerian national oil (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $ 350 million.
However, the BBC saw internal documents suggesting representatives of Shell’s Nigerian government, they were repeatedly warned of alleged fake agency practices.
One person conscious of the project spoke with the BBC about their worries – and asked her to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“It is generally known that what we do is what we do is fraud. Most are fooling people from Ogonia,” Zvizduk said.
“It is perpetuated so that more money can be put in a pot and ending up in the pockets of politicians and other people in power.”
The allegations of omissions in Hyprep include:
- Contracts are awarded to companies that have not had a relevant experience
- Laboratory results are forged – sometimes indicating contaminated soil and water as clean
- Project costs have been inflated
- External auditors are occasionally blocked from cleaning the web locations are properly derived.
In the record of a meeting of 2023, attended by representatives of the Nigerian Branch of Shell, Unep and Hyprep, it was noted that “incompetent” contractors “re -engaged” and “should not be allowed to further degrade the environment”.
In a separate missed report seen by the BBC in the same year, it was pointed out that the laboratory results were “regular deviations”.
In 2022, the UN wrote the Ministry of Environment in Nigeria, warning that if nothing changes, it would continue “extremely bad standards” cleaning.
The BBC asked Hyprep and the Nigerian government to comment on the allegations, but did not receive an answer.
But our investigation revealed evidence that Shell was aware of the problem.
At a meeting with the British High Commissioner of Nigeria in January last year, of which the minutes were obtained under the Freedom Law on Freedom, representatives of Shell acknowledged the “institutional challenges” of the Cleaning Agency and the chance of rejection of “Future Financing”.
Shell said to the BBC: “Hyprep is an agency founded and monitored by the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the Governing Council greatly made up high ministers and government officials, along with five representatives of communities and non -governmental organizations and one representative of Shell. “
This is not the only project of rehabilitation in Ogoniland that was allegedly killed.
In 2015, Shell agreed on a settlement of £ 55 million to clean after two catastrophic spills in 2008 from his infrastructure in the Bodo area.
The company announced that the cleaning, conducted by the Bodo (BMI) initiative, was carried out, which should serve as an intermediary between oil companies, including Shell and the Bodo Community (partly funded by oil and Nigerian regulators) was certified as 98% completed .
However, the BBC visited the places within the area and found raw oil from the soil and floating in the water.
Shell and BMI insist on any phenomena of oil pouring in the region due to the theft – known in the industry as “oil bunkering”.
“There is a plan for a return of the performer to clean these areas to the specification, to the standard,” Director of BMI, Director of BMI, told BBC Boniface.
“The responsibility of all stakeholders, shell, is to take care of their facilities to ensure that the oil does not come from their facilities again.
“But for cleaned areas. I think there is some responsibility for the community to ensure that some illegal activities also do not cause reunion.”
Shell said active measures were needed to prevent oil spilling caused by oil bunker.
The company said: “We are taking extensive steps to prevent this activity and pouring that causes, including air supervision, removing illegal connections on pipelines and construction of steel cages to protect the wells.”
The alleged petroleum cleaning failures come while Shell is preparing for the sale of Nigerian branches, SPDC, Renaissance Africa, a consortium of local and international companies.
Some locals in Ogoniland have accused the petroleum gigantic of “running away” from the proper cleaning of the soil and water, which are said to be polluted.
They also fear that shell can still profit from the area with a simple oil -drawn oil trade in the future.
“Operations of what an oil operator takes on relevant pipelines will have a huge impact on their daily lives,” said Joe Snape, a lawyer at Leigh Dayu, for the BBC.
“There is an amazing little detail about what will bring this offer.
“It’s unclear how much Renaissance [Africa] They will behave forward. At least with a shell we have the means to keep them on accounts. “
Mineral products, such as oil and gas oil and gas, make up 90% of Nigeria exports, most of which come from the Delta Niger region.
The locals, whose main source of life is agriculture and fishing, said the BBC that from the discovery of oil, or what some are called “black gold”, their home crashed for profit – by large petroleum products, by oil thieves and by corrupt politicians.
They say they have not seen any benefit, just suffering – like the Patience Ogboe who blames the recent outlet of oil for her failed crops.
“Earlier, if if I pica, I can eat some with my family and even sell some … but for the last few years I couldn’t get anything. It’s really bad,” a 42-year-old BBC.
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