Shell trial over oil pollution which has devastated two Nigerian communities begins at the High Court in London

The trial centres on claims by the Bille and Ogale communities that hundreds of leaks and spills from Shell’s pipelines and infrastructure have caused devastating damage to their local environment, breaching their right to a clean and healthy environment under the Nigerian Constitution and African Charter.

The two communities in the Niger Delta, which have a combined population of 50,000, have been left without clean water and unable to farm and fish. Neither community has had a proper clean up despite the ongoing serious risk to public health.  Regular spills from Shell infrastructure continue to this day.

The trial, which will be heard until Friday 7 March 2025, is a key moment in the legal claim by the communities, who have been fighting UK-based Shell plc and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC for a clean-up and compensation since 2015.  If the case is successful, it would be the first time in legal history that a UK multinational has been found to have breached a community’s human rights due to environmental pollution.

The ‘preliminary issues trial’, which is being heard by Mrs Justice May, will determine the scope of the legal issues to be decided at the case’s full trial, to take place in late 2026. It will consider two key issues that have wide implications for all future environmental claims:

• Whether oil pollution by a private company can be a violation of a community’s fundamental human rights under the Nigerian Constitution and African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.  Importantly, human rights claims have no time limitation, meaning Shell would not be able to evade liability on the grounds the claims were brought outside a narrow timeframe.
• Whether Shell can be held liable for damage to its pipelines due to oil theft, known as “bunkering,” or for the waste produced as a result of illegal refining of spilled or stolen oil. Shell blames much of the pollution in the Niger Delta on these activities, but the communities say Shell has repeatedly failed to take basic steps to stop this activity.

Shell says it has no legal responsibility for the chronic pollution caused in the Niger Delta by its subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) and has offered the Ogale and Bille communities no remedy or compensation.

Meanwhile, Shell continues to try to sell off its onshore oil operations in Nigeria, having made billions of pounds of profit over more than 70 years and seemingly with no clear plan for cleaning up the environmental devastation it has allegedly caused.

The Bille and Ogale communities are represented by in the trial by Leigh Day international team partners Daniel Leader and Matthew Renshaw who have instructed Fountain Court's Anneliese Day KC, Matrix's Phillippa Kaufmann KC, Anirudh Mathur and Catherine Arnold, 2 Temple Gardens' Alistair McKenzie and Blackstone's George Molyneaux.

The leader of the Ogale community, King Bebe Okpabi said:

“To be at the High Court in London to finally see Shell face a trial after the years of pollution we believe it has caused in our community is a very significant moment for myself and for all the people of Ogale. However, back home in Ogale, the spills have destroyed our land and our livelihoods and continue to affect our lives every day.

“After fighting for so long to get Shell to take responsibility for the devastation we believe it has caused to our land, we are very pleased to have finally reached the stage of a trial where we hope to prove that Shell has breached our human right to a clean and healthy environment under Nigerian Law and the African Charter.”

The leader of the Bille community, Chief Bennett Okpoki said:

“It has been a long, hard fight to get here but we are happy to see Shell finally facing trial at the High Court in London and hope to see justice prevail. Once we relied on fishing for our livelihoods – now, because of the pollution, our rivers and waterways are devastated, and the fish are gone.

“For years, Shell has tried to delay this case and to evade responsibility for the damage we believe it has caused in our community. We hope this trial will be a big step forward in our long fight for justice for the oil pollution which we believe Shell is responsible for.”

Leigh Day international department partner, Matthew Renshaw said:

“More than ten years after these two Nigerian communities first brought their claims against Shell in the UK, our clients simply want Shell to clean up their pollution and compensate them for their loss of livelihood. But instead of trying to resolve this issue, Shell has repeatedly attempted to block and delay the legal process.

“If our clients win this trial, under Nigerian constitutional law, Shell can be held liable for violations of our clients’ fundamental human rights, including their right to life and right to a clean environment. The trial could also open the door to Shell being held responsible for its negligence in failing to take reasonable steps to prevent pollution from oil theft or local refining.

“This trial is a key moment in the long battle by the Ogale and Bille communities to get Shell to take responsibility for the chronic oil pollution that has blighted their land for many years.”