Shell sues Nigerian community for $25m



Sapa-DPA

22nd October, 2001.

Nairobi - The oil giant Shell was expected on Monday to begin a lawsuit against two communities in southern Nigeria for allegedly causing $25 million-worth of damage to equipment in an attack last month, news reports from Nigeria said.

The lawsuit, scheduled to begin in the Benin state high court, pits the Anglo-Dutch oil company against the communities of Olomoro and Oleh in the country's oil producing Niger Delta region, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Last month, armed youths from the Isoko ethnic group took over the Olomoro flow station and tried to shut it down, police said. A pressure build-up led to an explosion and a spill of crude oil, according to Shell.

Shell officials said the attack reduced its oil production by 40,000 barrels a day and the rapairs would take 18 months at a cost of $25 million.

Oil installations have frequently been the target of attacks and hostage-takings by some Nigerian communities, who blame oil companies for environmental degradation, human rights violations and for not sharing the profits with local people.

Shell in particular has come under fire for its environmental record and for collaborating with previous military regimes in Nigeria, including the one that executed writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other ethnic Ogoni activists in 1995. - Sapa-DPA