Oil Spill In Ogoniland "A journey through the oil spills of Ogoniland"

Over two decades after Shell was first called out for it’s destruction of the Niger Delta, oil still contaminates the land, compensation is owed and Shell continues to obstruct justice.

The first thing that hits you is the stench of oil – crude oil – that pervades the air. The van slowly negotiates the potholes in the path, allowing us to take in the reality of the oil-drenched puddles we splash through.

We are on the ground with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, inspecting the state of the clean up at a few of the sites affected by oil spills in the Niger Delta. More than 23 years have passed since Ken Saro Wiwa was executed, along with eight other Ogoni leaders, by the Nigerian government for standing up to Shell's operations in their communities. It is more than a decade since four Nigerian farmers alongside Friends of the Earth Netherlands launched a court case against Shell in the Netherlands to hold the company to account for its destruction of the Niger Delta. 

Between 1976 and 1991, over two million barrels of oil polluted Ogoniland in 2,976 separate oil spills. While oil production has ceased, pipelines operated by Shell still traverse the land, creeks and waterways. Leakages – caused by corroded pipelines as well as bandits – mean that the area is still plagued by oil spills. 

It is a painful example of corporate impunity that even when the tireless work of communities, individuals and campaigners achieves some semblance of justice, it is rarely seen through. And nowhere is this more true than for the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta. As Michael Karikpo, from Environmental Rights Action explained to us.

Lack of action, lack of justice in Kidaro Creek

We are overlooking Kidaro Creek in Kegbara Dere. The landscape has been utterly devastated by oil spills in 2008, 2009 and 2014. The intense brightness of the sun blinds you to the ghastly yet beautiful patterns of the oil – coiling and sweeping across the surface of the water – until you are close up. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a damning environmental assessment of Ogoniland exposing extensive oil pollution and severe health risks including polluted drinking water.