Whistleblower Accuses Shell of Concealing Data on Nigerian Oil Spills

Oil Firm: community denies contractors access to sites

A whistleblower and former Project Director of the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI), Mr. Kay Holtzman, has accused Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of concealing data on the health effects of two major oil spills on Nigerian communities.

But a Shell Nigeria spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobo, said the company accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo and was fully committed to ensuring clean-up but that since 2015, the Bodo community of Rivers State has failed to permit access by contractors appointed to carry out the clean-up.

Holtzman, who was hired by Shell as BMI’s project director, disclosed that thousands of Nigerians are exposed to health challenges as a result of the disruption of the clean-up of Bodo community in Ogoniland.

BMI was established under the auspices of a former Dutch Ambassador who, until 2015 co-chaired the mediation process to deliver the clean-up of Bodo, which was impacted by the worst oil spills in the history of Nigeria’s oil and gas production.

In a letter seen by the Independent of UK, Holtzmann said data gathered in the Bodo community, which was devastated by two huge oil spills in 2008 and 2009, showed levels of pollution were “astonishingly high”.

He also accused the company of refusing to make the findings public.

“The results from the laboratory were astonishingly high, actually the soil in the mangroves is literally soaked with hydrocarbons. Whoever is walking in the creeks cannot avoid contact with toxic substances. Although the locals are accustomed to their environment they are exposed to hazards and especially negative long term effects on their health are unpredictable,” said the letter.

Copies of the letter were also sent to the executive director of the UNEP, Eric Solheim, the Dutch Ambassador to Nigeria and Shell.

Shell had accepted liability for the 2008 and 2009 oil spills, and in 2015, agreed to pay £55m to the Bodo community for losses caused by the spills.

UNEP had in 2011 published a damning report anticipating that it would take up to 30 years to clean the Niger Delta from oil spills, caused by theft and operational failures.

A partner at law firm, Leigh Day, who is representing the Bodo Community, Daniel Leader, told the Independent that “the Bodo Community was subjected to two devastating oil spills due to faults on Shell’s pipelines in 2008”.

“This letter shows that even those who were employed by Shell are deeply concerned by their behaviour and their lack of transparency,” Leader said.

But Okolobo alleged that the members of the Bodo community had prevented contractors access to the impacted sites since 2015 and had also initiated several court actions in Nigeria against SPDC, seeking injunctions restraining Shell from carrying out any clean-up and remediation work in the Bodo creek.

“The environmental assessment was conducted under the auspices of the BMI and accordingly, all questions relating to his work are best directed to the BMI. SPDC remains fully committed to ensuring clean-up takes place and will continue to work with the BMI to implement a remediation plan for Bodo area,” Okolobo added.

Chairperson of BMI, Inemo Samiama, to whom Holtzman addressed the letter, said in a statement that BMI had carried out Shoreline Clean-up Assessment Technique (SCAT) as recommended by the UNEP representative in the BMI, Dr. David Little, so as to form judgments on the best remedial methods applicable to each grid at individual sites.

According to Samiama, the results of the pre-SCAT and main SCAT as issued by the SCAT team leader, Dr. Erich Gundlach, had confirmed areas of pollution and the need for clean-up but the results did not raise new concerns because they were not different from existing observations from earlier reports.

Samiama added that the SCAT results were worrisome but not surprising, stressing that they confirmed that the degree of oil contamination in the Bodo Creek was high.

“This, however, did not warrant immediate emergency measures - the extent of the pollution was known, people were already aware they had to stay out of polluted areas - but rather emphasise the need for clean-up,” Samiama said.