Twelve years after the devastating oil spill off the coast of Nigeria, it is now clear: Shell can no longer be held responsible for the natural disaster. The case is statute-barred.
Oil giant Shell can no longer be held responsible for the 2011 oil spill off Nigeria. The UK Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit brought by Nigerian nationals. The plaintiffs argue that the oil on their land was not removed after the disaster, causing ongoing nuisance to the plaintiffs.
The court dismissed the appeal on the grounds of the statute of limitations: “There was no ongoing harassment in this case,” said Judge Andrew Burrows. The statute of limitations is only suspended if there is persistent harassment of the injured party. Because then the cause of action arises anew every time the harassment occurs.
In this case, the nuisance – i.e. the leak in the oil line – only occurred once. “The leak was a one-off event or an isolated escape. The oil line stopped leaking after six hours,” added Burrows.
40,000 barrels leaked
At 3:00 am on December 20, 2011, while an oil tanker was being loaded at Shell’s Bonga oil field, 120 kilometers off the coast of the southern Niger Delta, an oil leak occurred that was shut down after around six hours. The leak was caused by a rupture in one of the flow lines when crude oil was being transferred to a waiting oil tanker.
At that time, an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil ran into the sea. The plaintiffs accused the company that the oil spill had polluted their land and waterways and damaged agriculture, fisheries, drinking water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.