http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/shell-accused-of-blatantly-false-claims-over-oil-spill-clean#.kl0ae4gWp2
[links and images in on-line article]
Shell Accused Of “Blatantly False” Claims Over Oil Spill Clean-Ups
A new report from Amnesty International has accused Shell of failing to
clean up multiple oil spills in the Niger Delta.
The oil giant Shell has been accused by Amnesty International of
repeatedly failing to clean up the results of oil spills from its
infrastructure in Nigeria.
Some of the spills where researchers for the charity found continued
contamination dated back as much as 45 years, while others showed
apparent oil pollution despite having been certified as clean by the
Nigerian government within the last year.
Shell has reported around 200 spills a year in Nigeria for each of the
last five years. The company blames attempts to steal oil from pipes as
a large contributor to the high number of spills, but Amnesty
International said ageing infrastructure is also a major factor.
Strict rules in the country require visible oil in water to be gone
within 60 days of a spill, but photographs obtained by researchers from
Amnesty International and the Centre for Human Rights and Development
appear to show visible oil in multiple sites even years after spills.
The charity timed the launch of its new report to mark the 20th
anniversary of the execution by the Nigerian government of nine Ogoni
tribal leaders who had campaigned against oil extraction on their territory.
Relatives of those killed had accused Shell of “collusion” in the
deaths. In 2009, Shell settled a civil claim from the families for $15.5
million, without admission of liability.
The oldest spill for which researchers found oil still present dated
back to a 1970 fire and subsequent spill near Boobanabe, where
researchers found “waterlogged areas with an oily sheen” and “soil was
black and encrusted with oil”.
This was despite, Amnesty said, the site having been declared cleaned-up
in 1975 and again in 2012.
Researchers also found “soil soaked with crude oil” around the Bomu
Manifold – where several Shell oil routes coincide – dating from a large
fire in 2009, declared clean in 2012; further south in the Barabeedom
swamp, which was declared clean by regulators a year ago; and in Ogale,
which was declared clean in 2012.
Amnesty International said in its report researchers had then
cross-checked the areas against Shell’s database of leaks to make sure
the contimation they reported could not have been caused by more recent
spills.
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