Shell’s Dirty Legacy: Oil, Insecurity, and Injustice in the Niger Delta

Anthony Hayward is a paralegal and Stephen Bilko is Senior Associate Solicitor in the international department working on environmental and human rights litigation at Leigh Day. They represent over 13,000 individuals in the Ogale and Bille communities in claims for compensation and remediation of their lands, following extensive oil pollution caused by Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta. This blog critically examines ongoing litigation in the UK and considers the legacy of British colonialism in multinational oil extraction in the Niger Delta. This blog is part of the Extractive Industry and Foreign Security Network blog series.

 

Shell’s Dirty Legacy: Oil, Insecurity, and Injustice in the Niger Delta

Introduction

For decades, the Niger Delta has been at the centre of a struggle against the excesses of extractive capitalism. Each year, hundreds of oil spills contaminate the region’s land and water,[1] devastating livelihoods, and fuelling insecurity.[2]

At least six major multinational oil companies (“MNCs”) operate in the Niger Delta[3], but Shell plc (‘Shell’) - through its formed Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (‘SPDC’) - arguably bears the largest historic responsibility.[4] Until January 2025, SPDC was wholly owned by Shell, before being sold to Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd (‘Renaissance’).[5]

As Shell divests from its onshore operations, serious questions remain: will the company finally be held accountable for decades of environmental destruction and corporate impunity? Or will it walk away, leaving behind a toxic legacy of pollution and violence?

We are part of a legal team at Leigh Day representing claimants from the Bodo, Bille, and Ogale communities, who are seeking compensation and clean-up from Shell and Renaissance. However, these legal claims - brought in the High Court of England and Wales - are not only about clean-up and compensation. They represent our clients’ fight for accountability, and their demand to break the cycle of exploitation and insecurity that Shell helped create.

This blog explores Shell’s long and damaged legacy in Nigeria - from colonial roots to the Biafra War, to the Ogoni Protests, and the ongoing fight for accountability in the Niger Delta.[6]

The Niger Delta Today

The Niger Delta is one of the most heavily polluted places on the planet, where decades of oil extraction have caused devastating environmental and human health impacts. The average life expectancy in the Delta is 10 years less than the national average. A landmark 2011 United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Report revealed groundwater in Ogale - a community in the Niger Delta - was contaminated with benzene levels 4,500 times above the safe limits, warning of severe risks to public health. Despite the urgency of UNEP’s recommendations, cleanup efforts slow, poorly managed, and largely ineffective. Investigations, including a recent BBC report, have exposed how Shell repeatedly ignored warnings about corruption and mismanagement in its remediation programs, leaving communities trapped in a cycle of contamination, poverty, and neglect.[7]

This long-running environmental crisis has fuelled deep-rooted grievances and widespread disillusionment, contributing to a state of chronic insecurity. The operations of Shell and other MNCs, which have repeatedly failed to invest meaningfully in host communities and evaded accountability for widespread spills, have helped create conditions in which violence, militancy, and criminality have become endemic.[8]

Shell’s Deep Roots in Nigeria: From Colonialism to Corporate Power

To understand the present crisis, we must examine Shell’s history in Nigeria - a history of exploiting resources and fuelling insecurity.

In the late 19th century, British colonial authorities granted the Royal Niger Company a monopoly over trade, extracting wealth while violently suppressing resistance. After Nigeria was unified under British rule in 1914, the colonial government structured the oil industry to serve British interests, reserving exploration rights exclusively to British companies.

Shell entered Nigeria in the 1930s through Shell D'Arcy (a joint venture with BP), securing exclusive exploration licenses under the 1914 Mineral Oils Ordinance, which granted the British Crown exclusive ownership of all mineral resources.[9] Backed by colonial laws and government support,[10] Shell gradually gained control over Nigeria’s emerging oil industry, culminating in the discovery of commercial oil in Oloibiri in 1956.[11]

This setup maximised profits for the British state and its corporations, while marginalising local communities - laying the foundations for the instability that continues to plague the Niger Delta today. Though Nigeria gained independence in 1960, Western oil interests - especially Shell - retained control.

The Biafra War to the Ogoni Protests: Warnings from History

The Niger Delta’s resource wealth has long driven conflict. The Biafra War (1967–1970) and the Ogoni Protests of the 1990s offer stark warnings about what happens when corporate interests are prioritised over human lives.

The Biafra War

When the Eastern Region of Nigeria declared independence as the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967, the Nigerian government, backed by British and Western interests, fought to retain control over the oil-rich region.

The British Government’s press office worked hard to legitimise the supply of weapons and military expertise to Nigeria as a means of preventing the ‘balkanisation’ of newly independent African states and preserving the Commonwealth - the cornerstone of Britain’s ‘post-colonial’ foreign policy.[12] Less openly acknowledged was its aim to protect commercial self-interest.

Colluding with the British Government, Shell - holding key oil licenses in Biafra - refused to pay oil royalties to the secessionist government, aligning itself with the Nigerian State. This financial squeeze contributed to a devastating humanitarian crisis, where between one and three million people, mostly civilians, died from starvation and violence.[13]

The Ogoni Protests

In the 1990s, the Ogoni people - led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa - protested against Shell’s environmental destruction and human rights abuses. Their struggle mirrored earlier conflicts like the Biafra War, where control over Nigeria’s oil wealth took precedence over human lives. Shell’s role in Ogoniland went beyond environmental harm; it was implicated in exacerbating tensions and enabling state repression.

The Nigerian military’s violent crackdown on Ogoni protests, culminating in the execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists in 1995, demonstrated how corporate power and state violence were intertwined.

Just as Shell aligned with the Nigerian State against Biafra in the late 1960s, in the 1990s it was accused of complicity in human rights violations of the Nigerian state, reinforcing the pattern of resource-driven insecurity that persists in the Niger Delta today.

The WAC Report: Shell’s Role in Insecurity

By 2002, Shell’s entanglement in insecurity was so deep that it commissioned WAC Global Services to investigate it. The leaked report exposed that:

1. Shell routinely blamed oil spills on sabotage, even when its own infrastructure failures were responsible.
2. Shell fuelled community tensions by selectively providing financial incentives to local leaders.
3. Shell employees were implicated in colluding with local groups to cause, repair, and clean up spills -creating a cycle of profit from destruction.
4. Shell’s compensation policies worsened conflicts, as different factions vied for payouts.

The report concluded: “After over 50 years in Nigeria, SCIN [Shell Companies in Nigeria] has become an integral part of the Niger Delta conflict system.” It warned that without corporate reform and transparency, Shell’s operations would become unsustainable - advice the company largely ignored, and two decades later, Shell is once again distancing itself from the impacts of its operations under the guise of restructuring.

Denial to Divestment: Shell’s Latest Move to Evade Accountability 

In January 2025, Shell announced its divestment from its onshore oil operations in Nigeria by selling its stake in SPDC. The company claims this move is part of a broader strategy to simplify its portfolio and focus on more profitable and lower-risk projects, such as deepwater and gas operations. Significantly, Shell also cites the operational challenges of the Niger Delta - including persistent oil spills, community unrest, and insecurity - as key reasons for the divestment.

However, critics argue that Shell’s exit is an attempt to evade responsibility for decades of environmental damage and human rights abuses in the region. Organisations like SOMO and Amnesty International have warned that without proper cleanup, decommissioning, and accountability, Shell’s divestment leaves behind a “ticking time bomb” of pollution, abandoned infrastructure, and unresolved grievances.[14]

The Bille and Ogale Cases: Hope of Shell Taking Accountability?

As Shell divests, the same patterns of environmental destruction and insecurity persist. A key concern is that Shell’s divestment is a strategy to offload legal liability and limiting the access to justice for affected communities.[15]

In spite of these broader concerns, the Bille and Ogale communities, who issued claims against Shell and SPDC in October and December 2015 (the “Bille and Ogale Group Litigation”), offer a glimmer of hope that accountability can still be achieved.

Bille: A Fishing Community Destroyed

Bille is a riverine community where fishing has traditionally sustained the local economy. Between 2011 and 2013, a series of major oil spills from the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, estimated in the thousands of barrels, caused widespread environmental devastation. The damage to the mangrove forests is amongst the worst in history. With their waters polluted, fishing has become nearly impossible, plunging the community into economic hardship and exacerbating insecurity.

Ogale: A Decades-Long Crisis

In Ogale, Shell has recorded over 120 oil spills since 1989. The pollution has contaminated farmland, water sources, and fishing areas, leading to:

• Severe economic losses from declining agriculture and fishing.
• Water contamination, making it unsafe for drinking or farming.
• Potential health impacts from prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals.

The claims seek environmental clean-up and compensation, arguing that Shell is responsible for failing to prevent spills caused by SPDC. Shell fought for five years to block the case on jurisdictional grounds, arguing – among other points - that the parent company Royal Dutch Shell (now Shell plc) did not owe a duty of care to the claimants for the actions of its Nigerian subsidiary. In a seminal judgment in 2021, the UK Supreme Court unanimously rejected Shell’s jurisdictional challenge and held that the communities could pursue their claims in the UK. On 13 February 2025, after a further 3 years of legal resistance by Shell, a four-week trial on issues of Nigerian law. The parties are now preparing for a full trial commencing 1 March 2027 for 18 weeks.

Enduring Injustice: Reckoning Awaits?

Shell’s history in Nigeria is not a series of isolated incidents but part of a consistent pattern to extract wealth, externalise harm, and abandon communities when accountability looms. From its role in colonial exploitation, to complicity in the Biafra War, to the repression of the Ogoni protests, Shell has repeatedly evaded accountability and prioritised profit over human lives.

Shell’s divestment from its onshore operations is the latest iteration of this playbook - a strategic retreat designed to limit its legal and financial exposure while continuing to profit from Nigeria’s oil offshore. With this, there is the grave risk that the pollution, insecurity and economic devastation suffered by communities across the Niger Delta will not only continue but deepen.

While Shell may be retreating from the Delta, it is far from absolved. The Bille and Ogale Group Litigation represents a critical opportunity to challenge this cycle of impunity and demand accountability for decades of environmental destruction and social harm. In a final twist of corporate hypocrisy, a key element of Shell’s defence is that it cannot be held responsible for oil spills caused by third parties - despite those parties operating in the climate of insecurity Shell itself helped create. Time will tell whether Shell can use the very chaos it fuelled as a shield against accountability.

 

[1] National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Oil Spill Monitor, https://nosdra.oilspillmonitor.ng/.

[2] Insecurity refers to the widespread violence, sabotage and criminal activity in the region.

[3] The six major MNCs operating in the Niger Delta consist of: Shell (SPDC); ExxonMobil; Chevron; TotalEnergies; Eni (Agip); Sinopec (Addax Petroleum).

[4] Shell – via SPDC – has hhistorically the largest operator in the Niger Delta in terms of oil production. See SOMO’s report, p.11.

Limited (SPDC).

[5] See Shell’s press release: ‘Shell completes sale of SPDC to focus its portfolio in Nigeria on Deepwater and Integrated Gas positions’, 13 March 2025, accessed at https://www.shell.com/news-and-insights/newsroom/news-and-media-releases/2025/shell-completes-sale-of-spdc.html

[6] For clarity, this blog focuses on Bille and Ogale (i.e. not Bodo); the legal issues, while related, are distinct.

[7] BBC, “Oil clean-up 'scam' warnings ignored by Shell, whistleblower tells BBC” dated 12 February 2025. Accessed at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rqe85q1jno

[8] See, for example, Obi, Cyril & Rustad, Siri Aas (eds.), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: Managing the Complex Politics of Petro-violence (2011).

[9] "Tracing the Development of Oil Regimes in Nigeria," Code for South Africa (now OpenUp), available at: https://code4sa.org/offshore-oil/outputs/Tracing%20the%20development%20of%20oil%20regimes.pdf

[10] Dr Raji et al, ‘Shell D’Arcy Exploration & The Discovery of Oil As Important Foreign Exchange Earnings in Ijawland of Niger Delta, c.1940s-1970’, Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review (OMAN Chapter) Vol. 2, No.11; (June 2013), pp.22-33 (p.22).

[11] Shell’s website, ‘The History of Shell in Nigeria’, accessed at https://www.shell.com.ng/about-us/shell-nigeria-history.html

[12] Chibuike Uche, ‘Oil, British Interests and the Nigerian Civil War’, Journal of African History 49 (2008), 111- 135 (113).

[13] The number of deaths is widely disputed. This estimate is taken from, Falola and Heaton, History of Nigeria, 158.

[14] See SOMO’s report, ‘Shell’s reckless divestment from Niger Delta’ dated February 2024, accessed at https://www.somo.nl/shells-reckless-divestment-from-niger-delta/ pp.45-55.

[15] See SOMO’s report, pp.38-41