Top Nigerian court orders Shell’s appeal to be heard
Nigeria’s supreme court has granted Shell a hearing on an oil spill in the Niger Delta after the court of appeal halted an asset sale and ordered a judgment claim to be paid before hearing its case.
The case, one of several against Shell locally and abroad, started with a high court ordering in November 2020 that Shell pay 800-billion naira ($878m) to communities of Egbalor Ebubu in Rivers state, who blamed the group for an oil spill that damaged waterways and farms.
Shell denies causing the spill. Shell appealed to stop the high court executing its judgment but the court of appeal ordered Shell to deposit the money in an account controlled by the court, before its appeal could proceed.
Shell was also ordered to pause disposal of local assets last June until the supreme court ruling, to allow for any compensation due to the Niger Delta community.
Mohammed Ndarani, the lawyer of the Niger Delta community, said the supreme court sent the case back to the court of appeal.
The supreme court found on Friday that the appeal court did not look into the merits of the case and that Shell should be granted a hearing.
The case is being watched closely watched after Nigeria’s oil regulator refused to approve ExxonMobil’s $1.28bn asset sale to Seplat Energy in 2022, worrying international oil groups about the difficulty of selling assets in Nigeria.
Shell and other major oil companies operating in Nigeria are focusing on deep-water drilling and divesting from onshore operations, which are prone to crude theft and vandalising of pipelines, hitting Nigerian oil production.