By Adedapo Adesanya
The Supreme Court has ruled that Shell should be granted a hearing over an alleged 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.
In the ruling on Friday, the apex court found that the appeal court did not look into the merits of the case and directed that Shell be granted a hearing.
The case started with a High Court ruling in November 2020 that ordered Shell to pay N800 billion (then $1.95 billion) to communities of Egbalor Ebubu in Rivers state, who accused the firm of an oil spill that damaged waterways and farms.
Eighty-eight communities in the state were awarded the $1.95 billion compensation for an oil spill they blamed on Shell and which damaged their farms and waterways, but the firm has always denied causing the spill.
The oil major 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.
A panel of three judges said Shell, acting through its agents or subsidiaries was restrained from “selling, allocating, vandalising or disposing of any of its assets/properties …” prior to the determination of the appeal.
The company was also ordered to put the $1.95 billion into an account nominated by the court until the legal dispute was settled.
The case is being closely watched after the country’s oil regulator, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), refused to approve Exxon Mobil’s $1.28 billion asset sale to Seplat Energy in 2022, raising concerns among international oil companies about the difficulty of selling assets in Nigeria.
Shell had appealed to stop the High Court from 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.
Modupe Gbadeyanka