Shell Nigeria is the common name for Shell plc's Nigerian operations carried out through four subsidiaries—primarily Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC). Royal Dutch Shell's joint ventures account for more than 21% of Nigeria's total petroleum production ( (bpd) in 2009).
The company has been controversial in communities in the Niger Delta, who point to its poor environmental record and that most of the economic benefit from oil exploitation has not benefited local communities. In particular, when, in 1993 the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) organized large protests against Shell and the government, it led to repression of the local community.
The company has been responsible for some significant oil spills in the Niger delta, and both Nigerian and European courts have held them liable for environmental destruction. One of the most significant cases was at one of Shell's oil extraction facilities located in the Ejama-Ebubu community.
History Shell started business in Nigeria in 1938 as "Shell D'Arcy" and was granted an exploration license. In 1956, Shell Nigeria discovered the first commercial oil field at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta and started oil exports in 1958. Retrieved 26 November 2012 Prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria like many other African countries strongly relied on agricultural exports to other countries to support its economy.
In March 2025, Shell completed the divestment of its Niger Delta subsidiary to a Nigerian consortium, Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings, in a $1.3 billion transaction. The deal had been delayed by regulators due to concerns over the new owners' ability to manage the assets and environmental liabilities. Shell's divestment aligns with its intent to simplify its presence in Nigeria and focus on deepwater and integrated gas positions.
Recent news In July 2013, Shell Nigeria awarded Kaztec engineering Limited a $84.5 million exploration and production contract for the Trans-Niger oil pipeline.
On 25 March 2014, Shell Nigeria declared a force majeure on crude oil exports from its Forcados crude oil depot which stopped operations due to a leak in its underwater pipeline, a clause freeing the company from contractual obligations as a circumstance beyond its control happened. While it struggled with repairing the pipeline, Royal Dutch Shell announced a force majeure on Nigerian crude oil exports.
Structure
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is the largest fossil fuel company in Nigeria, which operates over of pipelines and flowlines, 87 flowstations, 8 natural gas plants and more than 1,000 producing wells. SPDC's role in the Shell Nigeria family is typically confined to the physical production and extraction of petroleum. It is an operator of the joint venture, which composed of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55%), Shell (30%), TotalEnergies (10%) and Eni (5%).
Impact
In the 1990s, tensions arose between the native Ogoni people of the Niger Delta and Shell. The concerns of the locals were that very little of the money earned from oil on their land was getting to the people who live there, and the environmental damages caused by the recurring sabotage of pipelines operated by Shell.United Nations Economic and Social Council report Situation of human rights in Nigeria, submitted by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/53 In 1993 the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) organized large protests against Shell and the government, often occupying the company production facilities. Shell withdrew its operations from the Ogoni areas. The Nigerian government raided their villages and arrested some of the protest leaders. Some of these arrested protesters, Ken Saro-Wiwa being the most prominent, were later executed, against widespread international opposition from the Commonwealth of Nations and human rights organisations.
The ethnic unrest and conflicts of the late 1990s (such as those between the Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri), coupled with a peak in the availability of small arms and other weapons, led increasingly to the militarization of the Delta. By this time, local and state officials had offered financial support to those paramilitary groups they believed would attempt to enforce their own political agenda. Conflagrations have been concentrated primarily in Delta and Rivers States.
Shell maintained that it asked the Nigerian government for clemency towards those found guilty but its request was declined. A 2001 Greenpeace report mentioned two witnesses for whom the company and the Nigerian military "bribed" by promising money and jobs at the facility. Shell gave money to the military and was blamed for contaminating the Niger Delta with oil. The company denied these claims and implied that MOSOP was an extortionary movement that advocated violence and secession.
In December 2003, Shell Nigeria acknowledged that the conflict in the Niger Delta makes it difficult to operate safely and with integrity and that "we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts, gain access to land, and deal with community representatives", and that it intends to improve on its practices. In 2009, Shell offered to settle the Ken Saro-Wiwa case with US$15.5 million while denying any wrongdoings and calling the settlement a humanitarian gesture. According to the New York Times and the journalist Michael D. Goldhaber, the settlement came days before the start of a trial in New York that was expected to reveal extensive details of Shell's and MOSOP's activities in the Niger Delta.
Oil spills The heavy contamination of the air, ground and water with toxic pollutants from oil spills in the Niger Delta is often used as an example of ecocide.
Individuals from villages surrounding oil production facilities occasionally drill holes into Shell Oil pipelines for the purposes of capturing oil and transporting it illegally out of Nigeria for monetary gain. This process, known as "oil bunkering", is estimated to cost Nigeria as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Typically, when the oil theft operation is finished, the pipeline is left open, which results in an oil spill.
In addition to the spills caused by 'oil bunkering', oils spills can also occur as a result of the quality of the equipment being used to extract and transport the oil. These spills are referred to as 'operational spills' and can be caused by corrosion, a lack of regular maintenance of the equipment, and overall underinvestment in the equipment being used. 18.7% of the spills reported by Shell since 2011 are labeled to be 'operational spills'. Oil spills can also occur as a result of natural hazards causing damage to pipelines.Steiner, Richard (November 2010). "Double Standard-Shell Practices in Nigeria compared with international standards to prevent and control pipeline and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill" (PDF). Friends of the Earth Netherlands. http://oasis-earth.com/Resources/Milieudefensie%20rapport%20Shell%20Double%20Standard%20L%2010-50-4435%20LR.pdf
In 1970, there was an oil spill from a Shell pipeline caused primarily by corrosion and operational failure resulting in over 250 barrels of oil spilled. The resulting effects included the pollution of the surrounding air, water, and soil, as well as, a loss of the surrounding ecological and aquatic species. Health problems in the surrounding areas were also cited as an impact of the oil spill. In 1978, another spill from a Shell pipeline due to corrosion and operational failure was reported to have leaked 580,000 barrels of oil. The resulting impacts were air, water, and soil pollution in the area of the spill.Aroh, K.N. & Ubong, Ini & Chibuogwu, Eze & Harry, I.M. & Umo-Otong, J.C. & A.E., Gobo. (2010). Oil spill incidents and pipeline vandalization in Nigeria: Impact on public health and negation to attainment of Millennium development goal: The Ishiagu example. Disaster Prevention and Management. 19. 70-87. 10.1108/09653561011022153.
In 2006, a team of experts in environmental assessments from Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States were independently organized to conduct a Natural Resource Damage Assessment in the Niger Delta. They concluded that over the past fifty years, an estimated nine million to thirteen million barrels of oil had been spilled in the Niger Delta. Shell is responsible for around fifty percent of the oil production in Niger Delta. Between 1998 and 2009, Shell oil was responsible for 491, 627 barrels of oil spilled, averaging about 41,000 barrels per year.
In 2011, Shell started publishing the reports it has been required to take every time an oil spill occurs. These reports, titled 'Joint Investigation Visit' or JIV, record when the spill began, where the spill took place, the cause of the spill, and the estimated amount of oil lost. JIV reports are important to not only keep track of the oil spills, but also to determine whether or not the surrounding communities will be able to receive forms of compensation for any damage on their homes, fisheries, or fields resulting from the oil spilled. Communities receive compensation only if the spill is not caused by sabotage or third party interference. This practice is based on Nigeria's 1990 Oil Pipelines Act that requires the company to compensate any person that is suffering from the damages of an oil spill, unless caused by a third party. The data from these reports have been published online since 2015 by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA). Since 2011, 1,010 oil spills with an overall sum of 110,535 barrels, or 17.5 million liters, of oil have been reported as lost by Shell.
Reporting practices and response
Nigerian government regulations legally require companies to report a spill within twenty-four hours of the spill, then conduct a JIV report within the next twenty-four hours following. In addition, the repair and clean-up of the spill is also required to begin within the first twenty-four hours of when the spill was discovered. Shell's response time has been reported to rarely be within these regulations. In only 25.7% of the spills that have occurred since 2011, Shell has conducted JIV reports within the first twenty-hours of a spill being reported. Oftentimes, it has been reported that Shell and other oil companies do not begin to clean up the spills until after the reports are conducted delaying the response time even further. Shell does state that the pipelines are shut off in the event of a spill being reported, however, the oil that has already been spilled is still left in the environment. For example, 252 days passed before Shell visited the site of an oil spill that was reported in February 2016. Another case in May, 2015 took Shell 190 days to visit after a report had been made. Both spills were reportedly in areas that were easily accessible providing limited excuse for the companies delayed responses. On average, Shell took around 9.68 days to respond and conduct JIV reports for spills that occurred in water and around 5.35 days to respond and conduct JIV reports for spills that occurred on land. Underreporting on the amount of oil spilled during each incident can also be attributed to the high volatility of oil resulting in the evaporation of about 50% of the exposed oil within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of the initial spill.