Shell Plc
Nigeria’s Supreme Court in a Friday, January 5, 2024 ruling allowed for Shell to be granted a fair hearing in a competent court of jurisdiction over an alleged oil spill in the Niger Delta after the Court of Appeal halted an asset sale and ordered a judgement claim to be paid prior to a substantive hearing of the case.
The case began with a High Court ruling in 2020 that ordered Shell Plc to pay an amount of 800 billion naira an equivalent of US$878 million to affected communities of Egbalor Ebubu in Rivers state, who filed a suit against the oil giant for an oil spill that damaged waterways and their farms.
In response to the judgement against it, Shell appealed to stop the High Court from executing its judgement, however, the Court of Appeal denied their plea and ordered Shell to deposit the money in an account regulated by the court, before its appeal could proceed.
Shell was also ordered to pause the disposal of local assets last June until the Supreme Court ruling, to allow for any compensation due to the Niger Delta Community.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Mohammed Ndarani, the community’s lawyer revealed that Nigeria’s Supreme Court has returned the case to the Court of Appeal for a substantive hearing.
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the appeal court did not look into the merits of the case and directed that Shell be granted a hearing.
The case is being closely watched after the country’s oil regulator refused to approve Exxon Mobil’s US$1.28 billion asset sale to Seplat Energy in 2022, raising concerns among international oil companies about the difficulty of selling assets in Nigeria.
EAN/OGB
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