The British multinational oil and gas firm, Shell, was successful in getting a 2011 offshore oil leak case decided in its favor by the United Kingdom Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The top court determined that it was too late for Nigerian claimants to file a lawsuit against Shell affiliates regarding an offshore oil leak in 2011.
The lawsuit was just one of several legal conflicts Shell has had with citizens of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta in London courts; the area is plagued by pollution, conflict, and corruption tied to the oil and gas business, according to Reuters.
There were claims that 40,000 barrels of crude oil, around 120 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, leaked when a vessel was loaded at Shell’s Bonga oilfield in December 2011.
Shell disputed the allegations and said the Bonga spill was dispersed offshore and did not have adverse effects on the shoreline, according to Reuters.
A group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities have made several attempts to drag Shell to court, arguing that the resulting oil slick polluted their lands and waterways, destroying farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.
But a panel of five Supreme Court justices unanimously upheld rulings by two lower courts that found they had brought their case after the expiry of a six-year legal deadline for taking action.
The claimants’ attorneys had contended that the pollution’s continuous effects constituted a “continuing nuisance,” a category of civil tort, which would have rendered the deadline irrelevant.
“The Supreme Court disapproves of the claimants’ argument. In this case, there was no persistent annoyance, Justice Andrew Burrows ruled.
Even though the Supreme Court case had two Nigerians as appellants, the report said that the judgment will also apply to the thousands of other claims.
Shell claimed that the Supreme Court decision has ended all legal claims over the spill in English courts.
Despite being extremely unfortunate, the 2011 Bonga spill was quickly contained and cleaned up offshore, according to a Shell representative.
A lawyer for the Nigerian appellants did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
