Shell pumped oil through Nigeria pipeline for years despite pollution evidence, documents show

BBC British multinational Shell continued operating a major oil pipeline in Nigeria for years even though it knew it was causing widespread pollution – despite a warning from its own staff that it was outside its own technical standards, internal documents obtained by the BBC show. The files, including emails and presentations, reveal that a senior Shell executive cautioned as early as 2008 about the risks of continuing to pump millions of barrels of unrefined fuel through one of the company’s main pipelines in Africa’s biggest oil producer while it was subject to massive and destructive uncontrolled theft and infrastructure failures. Across Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Niger Delta, decades of oil spills have left a landscape deeply scarred, with wetlands increasingly coated in crude and contaminated sediment. The BBC obtained the internal documents after Shell disclosed them as part of ongoing legal proceedings in the UK brought by communities living around the creeks and mangroves of the Niger Delta, who want Shell to be liable for the pollution caused by more than 100 leaks stemming from theft and illegal refining of oil between 2011 and 2013 that have damaged their health, environment and livelihoods. The 60-mile (96.5km) Nembe Creek Trunk Line runs near the riverine community of Bille, which is made up of 45 islands, from inland oilfields to a coastal processing site for exporting. The pipeline, which Shell sold last year, was one of its biggest, most expensive and ultimately most problematic bits of infrastructure in Nigeria. It was capable of carrying up to 150,000 barrels of oil a day, but was repeatedly hit by spills and targeted by illegal oil thieves. In court papers the oil firm argues that most of the pollution has been caused by “large-scale oil theft, sabotage” and dozens of illegal refineries, and that its Nigerian subsidiary invested heavily over many years to reduce the risk of and response to spills. BBC Before 2011, here was a beautiful area. People play here and go into the river. We used to fish around here. But because of the damage [the spills] have caused, nobody is fishing” Balafama Augustus Bruce, 64 Fisherman in Bille In places like Bille, which the BBC visited last week, residents describe once-rich fishing grounds turning toxic and unusable. “Before 2011, here was a beautiful area. People play here and go into the river,” 64-year-old fisherman Balafama Augustus Bruce told the BBC. Bruce, a claimant in the case against Shell, said before all the spills he was able to catch a variety of fish including sardines, catfish, tilapia and even oysters – but most are now hard to find or, if caught, appear deformed. “We used to fish around here. But because of the damage [the spills] have caused, nobody is fishing here again. “Because of that I’ve become poor. I eat from hand to mouth.” The communities via the ongoing international lawsuit against Shell are seeking $1bn (£742m), including: $250m in compensation And $750m to clean up the environmental damage. According to the UN, since 1958 when Shell sent its first shipment of oil from Nigeria, at least 13 million barrels – or 1.5 million tonnes – of crude oil have been spilled in at least 7,000 incidents. Campaigners have long tried to hold multinational oil firms accountable for environmental damage there – a vocal critic of Shell was Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of Nigeria’s leading writers, who was notoriously executed by the then-military government in 1995 after leading demonstrations against the pollution in his Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. Oil theft has also long been a problem in the Niger Delta – known as “bunkering” it usually involves criminal gangs tapping into pipelines and siphoning off crude into boats or storage tanks. Some of the stolen oil is refined in makeshift camps hidden in the creeks, while the rest is sold off illegally. In the mid-2000s oil militancy was also a major security issue as heavily armed militants on speedboats attacked installations and kidnapped foreign workers for ransom, including a series of incidents in 2007 and 2008, as part of their demands that the impoverished region receive more benefits from oil revenues. 2008 – the first warning An internal Shell email exchange from October 2008 reveals a disagreement between senior executives over the risks of continuing operations. Markus Droll, the firm’s then technical vice-president, raised concerns about a decision to keep operating the Nembe Creek Trunk Line outside of its usual guidelines. “If there is another massive explosive attack tomorrow… then we could well find ourselves in the situation of simply having to close the production down,” he wrote. Simi Jolaoso / BBC Shell, which began commercial production of oil in Nigeria began in 1958, sold off its remaining onshore assets last year Droll also questioned whether enough safeguards were in place a